
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



Chap.— C- Copyright No. 
ShelfjLtJ: 






UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



THE CHRIST OF YESTERDAY 
TO-DAY, AND FOREVER 



THE CHRIST OF YESTERDAY 
TO-DAY, AND FOREVER 

3Un& <©tf)er cSermong 



BY 




EZRA HOYT BYINGTON, D.D. 

AUTHOR OF "THE PURITAN IN ENGLAND AND NEW ENGLAND 



BOSTON 
ROBERTS BROTHERS 

1897 
<\ 
WO COPIES HECEIVED 




THE LIBRARY 
OF CONGRESS 

WASHINGTON 






Copyright, 1897, 
By Ezra Hoyt Byington. 



1219 



John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, U.S.A. 



TO 



THE THREE CHURCHES WHICH IT HAS BEEN 
MY PRIVILEGE TO SERVE,— 

THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH IN WINDSOR, VT, 
THE COLLEGE CHURCH IN BRUNSWICK, ME., 

AND THE FIRST CHURCH IN MONSON, MASS.,— 



2Tfje2e .Sermons 



ARE AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED BY THEIR 
FRIEND AND FORMER PASTOR. 



INTRODUCTION. 

These sermons have done their work in the pulpit, 
and they are sent to the press in the hope that they 
may still be of service in a new form. It is often 
said that books of sermons are not read, but the 
fact that so many volumes of sermons are published 
from year to year is an indication that it is not too 
late for the printed sermon to be of some use in the 
world. 

I confess that the desire to contribute something 
towards guiding the thought of our time to correct 
conclusions in respect to the methods of preaching, 
and in respect to its substance also, has been a lead- 
ing motive in the publication of this book. The 
preaching of our day is different from that of the last 
generation, and yet the difference is not so much in 
the substance, as in the form. That body of truth 
which has come down from the Apostolic age, and 
which has been received by all branches of the 
Church, is still the bread of life for those who 
hunger and thirst after righteousness. But we have 
no use for some of the theories and speculations 
concerning the religion which Christ taught, which 
originated in the middle ages, or in the time of the 



Vlii INTRODUCTION. 

Reformation. The advancement of natural science, 
and the progress that has been made during this 
century towards the mastery of nature, with the 
practical spirit and tendencies of the age, require 
new methods of presenting religious truth in the 
pulpit. 

In the first place, the preaching for the twentieth 
century will need to deepen the sense of personal free- 
dom and responsibility. Religion assumes the freedom 
of the will. If free-will be denied, there can be no 
such thing as duty, or the sense of responsibility. 
The cross of Christ is foolishness to those who do 
not have a sense of sin, and no one feels that he 
is a sinner until he realizes that the evil deeds 
are his own acts. The psychological problem under- 
lies the problems of theology. Our popular litera- 
ture is saturated with the spirit of fatalism. The 
tendency is to explain the whole life of man as 
the result of heredity, and environment. " Man 
lives," says Professor Tyndall, " in a realm of physical 
and moral necessity." If this be true, it follows that 
he is not responsible for his actions. It has been 
said that the extreme Calvinism of the early Puritan 
divines cut up by the roots the sense of responsibility. 
It is singular that the same result should have been 
secured by the scientific Agnosticism of modern times. 
It is the most difficult problem for the preacher of 
to-day to counteract this tendency. It is not enough 
that the laws of the land and the laws of God assume 
that we are responsible for our actions. The wise 



INTRODUCTION. IX 

preacher will appeal to the consciousness of every 
sane man as the conclusive evidence of the fact of 
responsibility. He will find a rich field for study, 
and for use in his public ministrations, in the teach- 
ings of the Master, in the conversations, and para- 
bles, and discourses which show, in such simple and 
conclusive ways, that the life of man is a life of lib- 
erty ; that when he does evil it is because he loves 
the evil, and chooses to follow it ; and that when he 
does well it is because he chooses to obey the voice 
of God speaking in the secret places of his soul, and 
calling him to the better way. He will find that our 
Lord constantly assumed the fact of human freedom, 
as the ground of responsibility. He said, " if any 
man thirst let him come unto me and drink ; " and 
He also said, " ye will not come unto me that ye 
might have life." He will also find that the Master 
recognized the weakness and infirmity of the will, 
and that He was always reminding His disciples of 
the divine help that was within reach of their prayers, 
— the help of a Friend unseen, the Holy Comforter, 
who should abide with them forever. 

At the same time, the preaching for this generation 
will need to set forth the gospel : the glad tidings of 
peace, and pardon, and eternal life. Never have the 
masses of men needed more than now the invitation of 
the Christ : " Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are 
heavy laden, and I will give you rest." It is of little 
real use to preach social theories, or ethical theories, 
or theories of religion. The multitudes that gather 



X INTRODUCTION. 

about Dwight L. Moody, wherever he goes, on either 
side of the sea, and that used to listen to Phillips 
Brooks, cannot be satisfied with mere naturalism. 
They crave a religion that is supernatural in its 
origin. They want a divine Person to give authority 
to the message : — one who is the same yesterday, and 
to-day, and forever ; — one who is able to save to the 
uttermost those that draw near unto God through 
Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for 
them. People are not drawn to religious teachers now 
on account of their traditional beliefs. They come 
because they have tried the doctrines of men, and 
have found the need of a religion that is above nature. 
They want a Teacher who can speak as one having 
authority, and not as their scribes. 

The preaching for our times must also be adapted 
to relieve the difficulties of those who are oppressed by 
honest doubt. The dogmatism of the older pulpit 
has been met by the dogmatism of the men of 
science, and the beliefs of a great many people 
have been unsettled. It was the purpose of Christ 
in His preaching to lead men to realize their spirit- 
ual wants, in order that they might come to Him 
for the water of life. He taught that the kingdom 
of God is not an outward thing. The kingdom of 
God is within you, and among you, — that is, it 
is spiritual. It has for its special work to bring us 
into sympathy with God. No one who is without 
this spiritual indwelling can know of the doctrine. 
Those who are feeling after God, in our time, need 



INTRODUCTION. xi 

to be guided with sympathy, and a broad intelli- 
gence, through the mists of unbelief, until they find 
Him who can satisfy their wants. They need to be 
taught the sweet reasonableness of the gospel, as 
well as its divine origin, that they may magnify the 
love and grace of God. 

EZRA HOYT BYINGTON. 

Franklin Street, Newton, Mass. 
November i, 1897. 



CONTENTS. 



Sermon Page 

I. The Christ of Yesterday, To-Day, and Forever 3 

"Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for- 
ever." — Hebrews xiii. 8. 

II. The Future of the Kingdom of Christ . . 21 

" The kingdom of God cometh not with observation : 
neither shall they say, Lo here ! or, lo there ! for, behold, 
the kingdom of God is within you." — St. Luke xvii. 
20-21. 

III. Love to Christ the True Motive in the 

Christian Life 43 

"For the love of Christ constraineth us." — 2 Cor- 
inthians v. 14. 

IV. Christ the Man of Sorrows 59 

"A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief." — 
Isaiah liii. 3. 

V. Christ our Lord and King 75 

" On his head are many crowns." — Revelation 
xix. 12. 

VI. Christ the Positive Teacher 91 

" And it came to pass, when Jesus ended these words, 
the multitudes were astonished at his teaching : for he 
taught them as one having authority, and not as their 
scribes." — St. Matthew vii. 28-29. 



XIV CONTENTS. 

Sermon Page 

VII. Eternal Life the Gift of Christ . . . 109 

" My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and 
they follow me : and I give unto them eternal life." — 
St. John x. 27-28. 

VIII. Christian Worship . . . 123 

" God is a Spirit : and they that worship Him must 
worship in spirit and truth." — St. John iv. 24. 

IX. Relation of Religion to Culture . . . . 141 

"And as Paul was about to be brought into the 
castle, he saith unto the chief captain, May I say 
something unto thee ? And he said, Dost thou know 
Greek ? " — Acts xxi. 37. 

X. The Gospel of Rest 159 

" And he left them, and went forth out of the city to 
Bethany, and lodged there." — St. Matthew xxi. 17. 

XL Growth of the Kingdom by Little and Little 177 

"By little and little I will drive them out from 
before thee." — Exodus xxiii. 30. 

XII. The Bound Life 195 

" And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto 
Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me 
there." — Acts xx. 22. 

XIII. The Spirit of Adoption . . . . . . . 211 

"For ye received not the spirit of bondage again 
unto fear; but ye received the spirit of adoption, 
whereby we cry, Abba, Father." — Romans viii. 15. 

XIV. Men and Sparrows 225 

"Fear not, therefore: ye are of more value than 
many sparrows." — St. Matthew x. 31. 

XV. The Danger and the Safety of Young Men . 243 

"And the King said, Is the young man Absalom 
safe ? " — 2 Samuel xviii. 29. 



CONTENTS. XV 

Sermon Page 

XVI. Heaven in Sympathy with the Penitent . 261 

"Likewise, I say unto you, There is joy in the 
presence of the angels of God over one sinner that 
repenteth." — St. Luke xv. 10. 

XVII. What is True Liberty . 277 

H And he said, A certain man had two sons : and 
the younger of them said to his father, Father, give 
me the portion of thy substance that falleth to me. 
And he divided unto them his living." — St. Luke 
xv. n-12. 

XVIII. Our Lord's Appreciation of the Good in 

Evil Men 293 

" Then Jesus beholding him loved him." — St. 
Mark x. 21. 

XIX. The Life Beyond the Cloud 307 

"And when he had said these things, as they were 
looking, he was taken up; and a cloud received him 
out of their sight." — Acts i. 9. 



I. 

THE CHRIST OF YESTERDAY, TO-DAY, 
AND FOREVER. 



I. 

THE CHRIST OF YESTERDAY, TO-DAY, 
AND FOREVER. 

jfesus Christ the same yesterday, to-day, and forever. 

Hebrews xiii. 8. 

One impression which we get from the course of 
events in this world leads us to think that everything 
is changing. The fashion of this world passeth away. 
It has no yesterday, it is so new, no to-morrow, it is 
so unsubstantial. It is only the fashion of to-day, and 
to-morrow will bring a new fashion. But the world 
lasts, while its fashions change. The seasons change, 
but time endures. The springing grass, and the 
leaves, and the flowers pass away, but the fields, and 
the hills, and the mountains do not appear to change. 
One who goes back to the home of his childhood is 
impressed by the changes which a few years have 
wrought. The trees that he planted in his youth 
have grown beyond his recognition. The old houses 
have given place to new ones. The old neighbors have 
grown old, and many of them have passed on, and a 
new generation has come to fill their places. The 
old habits, the old ideas of life, have been greatly 
modified. But human nature, with its great wants 



4 CHRIST OF YESTERDAY, TO-DAY, AND FOREVER. 

and experiences, is still the same. And the general 
features of the country are the same. He will range 
through the same meadows, climb the same hill- 
sides, follow the same streams, look up to the same 
mountains. 

So we find the permanent over against the chang- 
ing. If we find some things that are only for to-day, 
we find other things that are the same yesterday and 
to-day, and they are likely to be the same in the 
years and generations to come. History presents 
to us scenes that are constantly shifting, but it shows 
us principles that grow more familiar with the prog- 
ress of time. The fashions of dress and of social 
life, the tools, and even the employments of men 
change with the advance of civilization, but the great 
facts of human life, and the staple wants of human 
beings do not change. Hunger and thirst are ever- 
more the same ; love and hope, fear and pain, sick- 
ness and death are the same. We look up to the 
same constellations in the evening sky that Moses 
saw, and Abraham, and Noah ; our days and months 
and years are the same. Yet there is constant prog- 
ress. Many of the arts that were important a few 
centuries ago are lost arts to us, because we have 
passed beyond the need of them. What could an 
old Greek of the age of Themistocles do in a modern 
city, which is without walls for its defence, which is 
lighted by gas or by electricity, which receives its 
news by telegraph and telephone, whose citizens 
travel on railways and in steamships? But, after all, 
he would find that the eager, bustling people of these 
later times need essentially the same things to make 



CHRIST OF YESTERDAY, TO-DAY, AND FOREVER. 5 

their lives comfortable and desirable that his Athe- 
nian neighbors needed so long ago ; that the old 
ideas of truth and justice, and of the rights of man, 
and the old laws of self-denial and economy and 
industry, and the old liabilities to disease and infirm- 
ity and death have not changed at all in twenty 
centuries. 

The question is a fair one, How far is the re- 
ligion of Christ permanent ', and how far is it subject to 
change ? It has had a long yesterday, eighteen hun- 
dred years and more. Is it the same to-day? Is it 
likely to be the same in the long to-morrow that it 
was in the beginning? Has it such elements of per- 
manence that we may reasonably expect it to be the 
religion of the future? These are living questions 
for us at this time when things move so rapidly, and 
when the. theory of evolution is changing so many of 
the old beliefs and leading to so many new conclu- 
sions, and when the great religions of the East are 
studied so appreciatively. How far is the religion 
of Christ to be modified by a process of evolution? 
Does the progress which the world is making in our 
time touch the truths which are most surely believed 
among Christians? 

I. 

Let us begin with Christ Hints elf ^ who said : "I am 
the way, the truth, and the life." " And I, if I be 
lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." * 
It is eighteen centuries since He lived on the earth, 

1 St. John xii. 32. 



6 CHRIST OF YESTERDAY, TO-DAY, AND FOREVER. 

and that is more than half the period covered by 
authentic history. Very little that belonged to that 
time influences the world now, and why should His 
words ? He was a peasant of Galilee, — a wandering 
preacher, who selected unlearned and ignorant men 
as His disciples, and who was despised and con- 
demned by the scribes and doctors of the law. 
Herod and Pontius Pilate would have scorned to 
exchange places with this poor and homeless man. 
But what is Herod or Pilate to us? What is Jerusa- 
lem with its temple, — except as connected with this 
Teacher, who sometimes came there at the risk of 
His life to teach His doctrines to the people? What 
is Rome to us, with its imperial law and its civiliza- 
tion, the pride of its life, and its splendid worship ? 
What is Augustus, the foremost man in all the world 
when Jesus was born ; whom men adored as a god 
after he was dead ? What but the most brilliant rep- 
resentative of the fashion of the world which pass- 
eth away? It would not have seemed possible to 
one who stood in the Roman Forum in the first 
Christian century, in view of the magnificent temples 
and palaces of the eternal city, for that civilization 
to pass away, and another civilization so different 
and so superior to follow it. But the very languages 
of that old world are dead, and it lives chiefly in the 
dust of its tombs, and the ruins of its monuments, 
and in the ideas of those thinkers who were so far in 
advance of the popular notions of their time. 

The question is a fair one, Why should we go back 
to that age, to the life and the words of Jesus for our 
religion? 



CHRIST OF YESTERDAY, TO-DAY, AND FOREVER. J 

We shall get the answer if we study the life and 
the teachings of Jesus, the Christ. Those who work 
with perishable materials must expect their works to 
perish. Those who make the fashion-plates, for ex- 
ample, have to do with that which " passeth away." 
If Jesus had been simply a man of his time, if He had 
been only a Jew, if He had given His life to the 
questions just then awakening attention, He would 
have been nothing to the world now. But see how 
large and free His life was. He was born a Jew, but 
He refused to limit Himself by any Jewish prejudices. 
He taught that men should worship, not in Jerusalem 
only, but wherever they could find a place for prayer; 
and He commanded His disciples to preach the 
gospel to every creature. If any one tried to limit 
Him by the narrow ideas of that time, He met them 
by an appeal to universal truths, to principles that 
are broad enough for all times and all men. 

His ideas were not those of the men of his time. 
They depended on power; Jesus depended on love. 
They appealed to the past, — to its precedents and 
traditions ; He appealed to the truth, — to principles 
that are universal. They despised the masses of 
mankind ; Jesus preached to the common people, 
and sought to lead them to receive the best things 
God had to give. They condemned and despised the 
sinful ; Jesus invited the outcasts to a better life, and 
gave them the hope of a great redemption. Such 
ideas can never become obsolete. They are still in 
advance of the practice of mankind. 

If the character of Jesus had been full of defects, 
He might possibly have won the favor of the people 



8 CHRIST OF YESTERDAY, TO-DAY, AND FOREVER. 

of Galilee and of Judea. They would have liked Him 
the better for His conformity to their standards. But 
other men, in times of higher ideals, would not have 
been deceived. If His character was a perfect one, 
it will commend itself more and more. For we all 
have the idea of the perfect. There is a perfection 
of form, which we call beautiful. There is a perfec- 
tion of character, which we attribute to God Himself. 
Among the remains of Grecian art there are some 
forms so exquisitely moulded that they have been 
recognized by the ages as models of perfection; for 
the ideal standard is the same for cultivated men in 
all times. We have not improved upon Grecian art 
in respect to beauty of form. The masterpieces of 
ancient art are prized as highly now as they were 
twenty-two centuries ago, so that men are going from 
all lands to study those forms which were carved by 
Phidias and his brother artists. There has been no 
evolution in modern times in respect to the standard 
of the beautiful. But if those perfect forms appeal to 
the hearts of men in all ages, how much more must a 
perfect character, shown in the life of a perfect Man, 
who is our Friend and Brother. Progress can never 
carry us beyond perfect truth, and perfect justice, and 
perfect love, combined in the life of a perfect man. 

What excellent quality of manhood is there that did 
not appear in His life? Is it courage? See Him 
meeting with the spirit of earnest conviction the spirit 
and tendencies of His age, — showing the hollowness 
of the lives of men, uncovering the hypocrisy of the 
Jewish leaders, at the risk of popularity, of influence, 
and of safety. Count Tolstoi is wrong when he tells 



CHRIST OF YESTERDAY, TO-DAY, AND FOREVER. 9 

us that Christ taught only the doctrine of non-resist- 
ance. He taught that we should turn the other cheek 
when we suffer a personal wrong ; but He also taught 
us to resist evil, when He drove the money-changers 
from the temple with a scourge of small cords, and 
when He denounced the false teachers of His time as 
a generation of vipers. 

Is it fidelity to a high principle which marks the true 
man? In other reformers we find at some times a 
lowering of the standard, a compromising in view 
of unfavorable circumstances, but never in Christ. 
When all men were going after Him, He showed no 
elation. When His peaceful methods were failing to 
win the nation, and the popular voice demanded that 
He assume authority and employ force, — when the 
people desired to make Him a King, — He refused to 
follow their wishes. When threatened, He was never 
disturbed ; when persecuted He never complained. 
There is not a weak, unmanly word in all the records 
of His life. He wept indeed, but always for others, 
never for Himself. The nearer He came to the cross, 
the more serene His bearing became. " In all the 
world's annals," says Mr. Thomas Hughes, " there is 
nothing that approaches, in the sublimity of its cour- 
age, that last conversation between Christ and Pilate." * 
The prisoner, bleeding from the scourging, His head 
wounded by the crown of thorns, is yet calm, self- 
possessed, assuming the sublimest claims, and filling 
even the Roman governor with an indescribable awe. 
That artist is quite right who has represented Christ 
before Pilate — in the dignity of conscious innocence, 

1 The Manliness of Christ. 



IO CHRIST OF YESTERDAY, TO-DAY, AND FOREVER. 

waiting for the sentence to the cross, the appointed 
means of His victory — looking down, as a superior 
being, upon the man who was pronouncing His 
doom. 

Or do you connect with the manly spirit tenderness 
and delicacy of feeling, a sensibility to the beauties 
of nature, deference to woman, love for little chil- 
dren, ready sympathy with suffering and bereave- 
ment, a thoughtful and sustained devotion to the 
relief of the wretched and the salvation of the lost? 
All these are the plain characteristics of the man 
Christ Jesus. And yet so admirably are they set 
over against each other that you cannot tell which 
predominates in the assemblage of excellences, — 
the courage of His convictions, fidelity to the truth 
and to God, or a delicate courtesy, a warm and ten- 
der sympathy. You cannot tell whether it was more 
characteristic for Christ to drive the money-changers 
from the temple ; or to claim equality with the Father 
when the mob were ready to stone Him for blas- 
phemy ; or to take little children in His arms and 
bless them ; or to weep over the ruin of Jerusalem ; 
or to pray for the forgiveness of His murderers ; or 
to open the gates of paradise to the penitent thief, 
or to commend His mother with His dying words to 
the disciple whom He loved. 

The completeness of the character of Jesus is alto- 
gether unique. You cannot say that He lacked any 
quality of excellence. The good men of the world 
have belonged to certain well-marked types. John 
the Baptist, for example, was compared with Him; 
but John represented a hard and legal piety. He 



CHRIST OF YESTERDAY, TO-DAY, AND FOREVER. 1 1 

came neither eating nor drinking, dwelling in the 
deserts, his food locusts and wild honey. But Jesus 
loved the cheerful ways of men. He was quite as 
much at home at the marriage in Cana of Galilee 
as at the tomb of Lazarus, weeping with the bereaved 
family. The Pharisees had their type of religious 
character, and the Sadducees had theirs ; but He could 
not be classed with either of them. In the later cen- 
turies Christian devotees retired to the wilderness, 
thinking to gain holiness by solitary vigils and pen- 
ances ; and still later the monasteries gathered great 
companies of men who had renounced the world to 
escape its temptations. The Puritans of England 
and New England illustrated in their lives the virtue 
of fidelity to truth and duty. But our Lord was not 
a hermit, or a monk, or a Puritan. The various de- 
nominations of Protestant Christians represent dif- 
ferent types of Christian character, — from the zeal 
and fervor of the Methodists, the conservative rever- 
ence of the Episcopalians, the freedom and faith of 
the Congregationalists and the Presbyterians, to the 
conscientious obedience of the Baptists. But no one 
ever thinks of Jesus as a Methodist, or a Baptist, or 
an Episcopalian, or a Congregationalist. His life 
was not moulded according to any fashion, or limited 
by any partial views of truth. He knew the truth 
from its central source. Every excellent quality 
which we find apart in others, we find combined in 
Him. There was " no fault at all in Him." He is 
the perfect Model, the Light of the World, and the 
Saviour of mankind, — the same yesterday, to-day, 
and forever. 



12 CHRIST OF YESTERDAY, TO-DAY, AND FOREVER. 



II. 

If we pass from Christ as an historic Person, — 
the divine Founder of the Christian religion, to con- 
sider His teachings, we still meet the question whether 
the religion of Christ is entitled to a permanent place 
as the religion of the world. Other religions have 
been outgrown in the progress of mankind. Why 
should not men outgrow the Christian religion? Is 
there any reason why we should consider this as the 
absolute religion? We shall find in the history of 
our religion striking illustrations of the fact that 
whatever is narrow and limited and imperfect will 
pass away as men advance, while that which em- 
bodies truths that are universal will endure. 

The forms of worship, for example, are liable to 
change. The primitive Christians, accustomed to 
the most simple services of prayer and praise, in 
private rooms, or in the catacombs, or in the deserts, 
would hardly recognize as fellow disciples those who 
in magnificent churches and cathedrals worship the 
same Lord. The organization of the Church has 
varied in different ages and countries. The tendency 
on the whole, in later times, is towards simplicity in 
worship and in organization. The vestments of the 
clergy, the style of church music, the form of church 
edifices, all these are among the variable elements in 
the Church. There has been progress in the knowl- 
edge and the statement of the doctrines of our re- 
ligion. The first Christians had not by any means a 
complete system of religious truth. The Apostles' 



CHRIST OF YESTERDAY, TO-DAY, AND FOREVER. 1 3 

Creed is far less complete than the Nicene or the 
Athanasian creeds; and these are very far behind the 
Creeds of the Reformers. The Westminster Confes- 
sion was in advance of any of the earlier confessions, 
and yet there are very few well-informed Christians 
who are not now in advance of some parts of the 
Westminster Confession. The Reformers had learned 
more about justification by faith than the early 
Christians knew ; and modern Christians know more 
about the love of God, and the freeness of the gospel 
than the Puritans knew. More light has been break- 
ing from the Word of God. The great movements 
in modern missions have enlarged the views of Chris- 
tians in respect to the purpose of the Incarnation. 
The decay of systems of absolutism, and the progress 
of political and religious liberty have prepared men 
to understand the teachings of our Lord. The prog- 
ress of Christian thought, or, in the phrase of the day, 
the evolution of religion, has given to the Church a 
more adequate conception of the Fatherhood of God, 
and of the extent of His redemptive purposes. 

The question is a fair one, How far are these changes 
in religious opinion likely to extend ? Are the foun- 
dations of our faith in danger? Will the religion of 
the future be Christian? 

The true answer to this question, which so many 
are asking, is this : these changes do not touch the 
essential truths of the Christian faith. The deepest 
wants of men are the same in every age, and these 
deepest wants are met by the religion of Jesus the 
Christ. There are certain facts in the life of man 
which are not changed at all by the progress of mod- 



14 CHRIST OF YESTERDAY, TO-DAY, AND FOREVER. 

ern thought. Life is short. Death is certain. We 
are weak, and dependent, and prone to evil. As all 
men need food that they may live, so all men need 
the favor and love of God. As all must die, so all 
must render account to God for the deeds done in 
the body. The sense of resp®nsibility rests upon all 
men, — whether pagans or Christians, and this has 
always been the great burden of humanity. The 
Hindoo asks how to get rid of his burden of sin, just 
as all men in all ages have asked. The deepest truth 
in the Christian religion is this : that Christ came into 
the world to save sinners, to save those who were lost. 
He taught in the most impressive moment of His 
life that His blood was " shed for many for the remis- 
sion of sins." 1 He brings " life and immortality to 
light," and holds out to men the offer of eternal life in 
the kingdom of God. He brings this infinite gift 
within reach of every man on this earth. These 
truths of the Christian faith were the sources of its 
power when Paul preached all the way from Antioch 
to Rome ; and they stand to-day, like the sun in the 
sky, the sources of light and of life to the world. So 
long as man is man, he will need just that which our 
Saviour offers in the gospel. The progress of man- 
kind in the arts of life and in philosophy cannot pos- 
sibly carry them beyond the need of peace with God, 
through the forgiveness of sins. 

1 For myself, I believe that Paul's message to the Corinthians, — 
Jesus Christ and Him crucified, — is the highest that has ever come 
to man, and the personal form which the divine idea assumed in the 
apostolic announcement appears to me essential to the reality and 
permanence of the idea itself. — Dr. George A. Gordon, in The 
Christ of To-day, p. 256. 



CHRIST OF YESTERDAY, TO-DAY, AND FOREVER. 1 5 



III. 

But there is yet higher ground for us to take. 
Religion is more than a theory or a system of doctrine. 
It is, first of all, a personal experience. It does not de- 
pend upon books of evidences. What the religion of 
Christ really is, is known to every one who knows the 
love of God and the "joy of salvation." If it were 
possible for the progress of modern criticism to 
destroy even the Bible, — the record of God's revela- 
tion, — religion would remain in the hearts of true 
disciples as a living experience ; just as an experience 
of love and sympathy and friendship would remain 
after the books that tell about them had perished. 
Religion does not depend upon a book. Father 
Taylor, the chaplain at the Seamen's Bethel, used to 
say : " I do not want anybody to prove to me that 
there is a God, for I have been well acquainted with 
Him for a great many years." That is the vital fact 
in regard to personal religion. Every Christian is in 
communion and fellowship with God, and knows him 
as truly as he knows his own kindred. 1 

If, then, you meet an unbeliever, ask him to follow 
the history of a disciple of Christ. Begin at the 
time when the peace of God, which passeth all un- 
derstanding, begins to fill his soul, — the moment 
when he makes his first real prayer, and the clouds 
which till then had separated him from God are scat- 
tered, and the first direct answer comes back, and he 

1 See The Evidence of Christian Experience, Prof. L. F. Stearns, 
p. 138 ; also p. 423, note 19. 



1 6 CHRIST OF YESTERDAY, TO-DAY, AND FOREVER. 

knows that heaven is opened, and that messages are 
going to God and returning from Him, as the angels 
went and came on the ladder that Jacob saw. He 
has the Spirit witnessing with his own spirit that he 
is born of God. He has the assurance of the forgive- 
ness of sin, and of peace with God through our Lord 
Jesus Christ. 1 This personal experience is the deep- 
est fact in the Christian consciousness. 

A few years pass, and that young disciple is draw- 
ing towards the end of his life. You will hardly 
recognize in the venerable old man the youth who 
so long ago became a disciple of the Christ. The 
fashion of the world has gone by with him. The 
fancies and dreams of his youth have departed. 
The friends of his youth have gone. All the old 
life has gone. But the great hope has become more 
precious as he has come nearer the land of Beulah 
and the celestial city. He has walked with God so 
long that he desires to depart, that he may be with 
Him. We have all seen such Christians die, and 
when all other interests and thoughts had been 
dropped, in their progress towards heaven, the love 
of Christ has drawn them forward more and more 
strongly, — a love more enduring than life, the same 
when flesh and heart were failing, and the glories of 
the spiritual world were lighting up the path of the 
departing saint. 

This personal experience is the essential fact in 
Christianity. The ethnic religions have nothing to 
correspond with it. It was to prepare the way for 
this experience that the Son of God came into the 

1 St. John ix. 25 ; Romans viii. 16. 



CHRIST OF YESTERDAY, TO-DAY, AND FOREVER. \J 

world, that those who " labor and are heavy laden " 
might come unto Him and find " rest for their souls," 
and that, as He said, He might give unto them " eter- 
nal life." It was to secure this religious experience 
that the Holy Spirit came to enter into the work of 
redemption. For this same end the Bible was given. 
For this the Church of God exists, with its ministry 
and all its means of grace. Every missionary enter- 
prise, every missionary station has this for its final 
purpose. 

So long as there are living Christians in the world, 
the evidence of the truth and reality of the Christian 
religion will continue. This experience varies a little 
as the circumstances of Christians vary, but in all 
essential respects it has been the same, whether in 
the time of St. Paul or of Augustine, of Luther or of 
Wesley, of the first disciples or of those of our own 
time. 

This experience has all the marks of a divine work. 
It is uniform, it is permanent, it is controlling. It 
is the evidence to us that God is now present in His 
own world, — an immanent God, fulfilling His prom- 
ises, and enlarging His kingdom. The convincing 
answer to the unbelief of our time is the living 
Church, vital in every part, holding forth the word 
of life, and attested by the presence of the Holy 
Spirit. So long as the vital spiritual work of Christ 
goes forward, nothing can hinder its conquests. 

May we not expect that this work in human souls 
will continue in the long to-morrow? It has back of 
it the purposes of God from the foundation of the 
world. It has back of it the character of Jesus Christ 



1 8 CHRIST OF YESTERDAY, TO-DAY, AND FOREVER. 

and His wonderful words. The Holy Spirit of God 
gives it vital force. Inasmuch as the Lord has begun 
this work of Redemption, will He not continue it 
until He shall have filled heaven with redeemed 
souls, who shall ascribe honor and glory unto the 
Lamb that was slain, and is alive forevermore? 



II. 

THE FUTURE OF THE KINGDOM OF 
CHRIST. 



II. 



THE FUTURE OF THE KINGDOM OF 
CHRIST. 

The kingdom of God cometh not with observation : Neither 
shall they say, Lo here / or, lo there / for, behold, the king- 
dom of God is within you. St. Luke xvii. 20, 21. 

MOST of the words of Christ referred directly to 
events which belonged to his own time. He spoke 
with reference to the sins which were then common, 
and to the tendencies which were then strong. But 
the divine wisdom of His words appears in this, that 
the things which were spoken to the men of His own 
age are found to be suited to the necessities of men 
of all ages ; so that this Teacher of the common 
people of Galilee is also the Teacher of the wise 
men of Europe and America. His words, indeed, 
have profounder meanings for us than they could 
have had for the Scribes and Pharisees. 

Take these words concerning the kingdom of God. 
The Jews had much to say about that kingdom, but 
they did not comprehend it. They always spoke 
of it as something outward, something which came 
" with observation." They fancied that the king- 
dom of God was of necessity connected with Jeru- 
salem and Judea; and they looked for a Redeemer 



22 THE FUTURE OF THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 

who should restore the kingdom to Israel. 1 It was, 
in their view, a political kingdom, and they were 
looking in this direction and in that for some means 
of breaking the Roman yoke. In their religious 
observances they laid an undue stress upon out- 
ward rites and ceremonies. The Saviour was always 
directing their thoughts from these outward things to 
the things that are spiritual, — to the spiritual mean- 
ing of religious rites, and the spiritual nature of the 
true kingdom. " God is a Spirit, and they that wor- 
ship him must worship him in spirit and truth." 
" The kingdom of God cometh not with observation," 
for it is set up within you, and the " pure in heart " 
are the ones that " shall see God." 

These words from the old gospel may guide us to a 
correct view of the kingdom of Christ, in its relation to 
some of the current discussions of this Age of Doubt. 

The intellectual struggle which is now going on 
concerning the very basis of the Faith, — concerning 
the apostolic teaching which has come down from the 
first century, — is perhaps the greatest the world has 
ever seen, and it is destined to become more serious 
at no distant time, and perhaps to deal with questions 
in a more profound way. Already, in the words of a 
recent writer, " men are calmly questioning and pre- 
paring to cast aside beliefs which were once accepted 
as the very basis of religion. Doctrines are swinging 
before us in the balance that seemed but yesterday to 
be fixed as mountains." 2 Young men are watching the 
progress of scientific discovery, saying, " Lo here ! " 

1 Philochristus, p. 29. 

2 Questions of Belief, W, H. Mallock, p. 281. 



THE FUTURE OF THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 23 

or " Lo there ! " as though the kingdom of God came 
by observations, whether through the microscope, or 
through the finest chemical analysis, or combinations, 
or the most careful examinations of life. Questions 
relating to the divine authority of the Bible are more 
and more prominent. Strauss, in his old age, pub- 
lished " The Old and the New Faith," assuming that 
the world had outgrown the old, and that it was 
already seeking for the new; and he succeeded at 
least in showing that, for himself, with his active yet 
darkened mind, there was no such thing as faith. 
Indeed, the question of the New Testament, " When 
the Son of man cometh shall he find faith on the 
earth ? " 1 is a question which is as pertinent now as it 
was eighteen centuries ago. 

It is important to come to such questions with open 
minds. We must guard against the fallacies that lurk 
in so much of human reasoning. We should seek to 
gain broad and comprehensive views of truth. One 
cannot expect to see all the stars of heaven so long 
as he dwells in a cave. The truth has more to fear 
from a narrow and superficial scholarship than from 
anything else. No one can hope to reach firm stand- 
ing-ground until he has studied these questions widely, 
and studied them long. 

I. 

We shall do well to approach the discussion through 
the history of religious thought. Any one who is 
versed in the history of opinions must be aware 

1 St. Luke xviii. 8. 



24 THE FUTURE OF THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 

that the law of action and reaction has always been 
illustrated in religious progress. It is no new thing 
for the current to set strongly towards unbelief. 
There have been a number of periods in Christian 
history when it has seemed as though the world was 
drifting away from a belief in the supernatural. 
Every such period has been followed by a reaction 
which has given religious truth a stronger hold upon 
the world. The growth of the kingdom has never 
been uniform. The tide ebbs and flows. The pen- 
dulum swings backwards and forwards. It would not 
follow that the Christian religion was really losing its 
hold, even if the great mass of educated men were to 
become unbelievers. One of the benefits of the his- 
toric spirit is the power it gives one to appreciate these 
currents and counter currents of religious opinion. 

All through the historical books of the Old Testa- 
ment we find that the people of Israel were vacillating 
between the worship of the true God and that of the 
gods of the heathen. The reason was that the reli- 
gion of their fathers was really above their spiritual 
level. It required an effort to raise them at any time 
high enough so that they could enter with any hearti- 
ness into its spiritual cultus. There was always a 
tendency to drop towards a lower plane. There was 
no such alternation among the people who dwelt 
around them, because their religious systems did not 
require any such elevation of the moral and spiritual 
tone. 

Among Christian nations there has been a similar 
alternation between faith and unbelief, and for the 
same reason. We can select illustrations of this 



THE FUTURE OF THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 25 

statement from any one of the Christian centuries. 
Let us take, for example, the religious history of Eng- 
land since the Reformation. Never was there a 
greater change in the moral and religious state of a 
nation than that in England between the early years 
of Elizabeth and the time of Oliver Cromwell. The 
Bible became the book of the people, and its truths 
the most common objects of thought. The best liter- 
ature of the period was represented by Hooker, and 
Bacon, and Bunyan, and Spenser, and Milton, and it 
was saturated with religious ideas. The Puritan spirit 
gave a serious and religious tone to society as well as 
to literature. Even the government of the State was 
regarded as subsidiary to the progress of the kingdom 
of God. Some of the old forms of worship were dis- 
carded, that men might pay their devotions in ways 
that were more simple and sincere. The Lord's Day 
was rescued from desecration, and was kept all over 
England as a holy day. 1 The Puritan movement 
was a whole century in gathering strength, and one 
would have supposed that its strong currents would 
have continued to flow. But the religious tone of 
Puritanism was too high to be maintained at that 
period, and it was followed by a great reaction on the 
restoration of the Stuarts. Says Mr. Greene, "When 
Charles came to Whitehall the whole face of England 
was changed." " All that was noblest and best in 
Puritanism was whirled away." " Godliness became 
a byword of scorn." " The young men drank in 
the spirit of scepticism and free inquiry. From the 
spiritual problems which engrossed attention in the 

1 Lecky, Democracy and Liberty, vol. ii. p. 102. 



26 THE FUTURE OF THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 

times of the Puritans, England turned to the study of 
nature, so that the pursuit of physical science became 
a passion." \ The first national observatory arose at 
Greenwich. Sir Isaac Newton gave a fresh impulse 
to the pursuit of natural science by his great discov- 
eries. The young scholars of the nation were devoted 
to these studies. Useful inventions and the conven- 
iences of life were greatly multiplied. 

With this devotion to nature came in the phi- 
losophy of Hume, which has ever been the method of 
unbelief, and the sceptical system of Hobbes. Later 
still the historian says that religion sunk to a lower 
point. " In the higher circles every one laughs if one 
talks of religion." "Of the prominent statesmen of 
the time the greater part were unbelievers in any 
form of Christianity, and distinguished for the gross- 
ness and immorality of their lives." " We saw but 
one Bible in the parish of Cheddar," said Hannah 
More, " and that was used to prop a flower pot." 2 
Vice and crime existed everywhere, in high circles and 
in low. The Church, if we may credit the representa- 
tions of Mr. Macaulay, had lost its power for good. 
Nine-tenths of the clergy had sunk into the station of 
menial servants in the aristocratic houses where they 
officiated as chaplains. " Sometimes," says a recent 
writer, " the reverend man nailed up the apricots, and 
sometimes he curried the coach horses, and sometimes 
he was even compelled to resort to the feeding of swine 
that he might obtain his daily bread." 3 

1 Short History of England, pp. 587-600. 

2 Ibid., p. 707. 

3 Quoted by Prof, Austin Phelps, Bibliotheca Sacra, 1857, p. 290. 



THE FUTURE OF THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 27 

In the earlier part of the eighteenth century in 
England the power of religion was very small. Addi- 
son declared that there was " less appearance of 
religion in England than in any neighboring State or 
kingdom." Bishop Butler said that " many persons 
took it for granted that Christianity was now at length 
discovered to be fictitious." Lady, Montagu wrote that 
" more atheists were to be found among the fine ladies 
of the time than among the lower sort of rakes." 1 

For a long period the masses of the English people 
turned away from the churches. The Puritan Lord's- 
Day was exchanged for the Sunday of the continent. 
Romanism was secretly fostered at the court, and it 
seemed as though England was destined to pass 
again under the power of the Church of Rome. But 
in due time there came a reaction which has carried 
the influence of Christianity much higher than in the 
best periods before. This reaction seemed to begin 
with the labors of the Wesleys, and of Whitefield, a 
hundred and fifty years ago. It extended to all 
branches of the church, and to all departments of 
religious activity. It effectually limited the influence 
of unbelief, and brought back the great mass of Eng- 
lishmen to Christianity. This movement developed 
into the great revivals of religion which have swept 
over England and America so many times. Out of 
it has grown the system of Sunday-schools, the 
extension of popular education, the great philan- 
thropic enterprises of the time, especially the anti- 

1 Lecky, England in the Eighteenth Century, vol. i., pp. 516-519; 
Sidney's England in the Eighteenth Century, vol. ii., pp. 323, 324 ; 
Bibliotheca Sacra, 1897, pp. 68-70. 



28 THE FUTURE OF THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 

slavery movement, the temperance reform, the Bible 
and Tract societies, the Home and Foreign Missionary 
societies, and the spirit of Christian union. Among 
the indirect results of this reaction have been the rise 
of a spiritual philosophy, the philosophy of intuitions 
in place of the sensational philosophy of Locke; and 
the rise of a moral science founded upon immutable 
right in place of the selfish system ; the cultivation 
of a higher style of poetry, under the influence of 
Wordsworth and Coleridge; 1 and, in politics, the 
extension of free institutions, the protection of the 
rights of the masses of the people, and the enfran- 
chisement of woman. The Victorian period has seen 
the finest growth of the religion of Christ. 

It is not surprising that this great reaction has been 
succeeded by another in the opposite direction. The 
extension of commerce, and the great increase of 
wealth ; the amazing progress of the natural sciences ; 
the improvements in the practical arts ; the progress 
of political freedom, — all these have had a tendency 
to turn the attention of men from that which is spiritual 
to that which is material : from the inward to the 
outward ; from metaphysics to physics ; from theology 
to chemistry and biology ; from the word of God to 
the philosophies of men ; from the kingdom of God 
to the kingdom of man. It is inevitable that in such 
an age there should be some weakening of the power 
of the supernatural. 

The history of the religious life in New England is 
also full of illustrations of the same tendencies. In 
the earlier Puritan age the religious spirit of the 
1 Shairp, Poetry and Philosophy, p. 2. 



THE FUTURE OF THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 29 

colonists was a high one. They had been sifted out 
from the mass of their countrymen by a long course 
of persecution. They were men of eminent piety. 
Religious ideas and religious motives guided their 
plans of life. But in the next generation there was 
a change. " A little after 1660," says Thomas Prince, 
" there began to appear a decay ; and this increased 
to 1670, when it grew very visible and threatening, 
and was generally complained of by the pious people 
among them. This tendency was much stronger in 
1680, when but few of the first generation remained." 
Revivals of religion were few. The standard of 
morality was low. There were great changes in theo- 
logical opinion. The Lord's Day was commonly 
desecrated. The line between the Church and the 
world was almost obliterated. 1 This declension con- 
tinued up to the Great Awakening, in the time of 
President Edwards, who bears testimony to the 
changes in the religious spirit of the people and to 
the low standard of morality among them. And yet, 
we are told, everybody at that time was expecting to 
go to heaven at last, whatever his life might be. The 
Great Awakening began a religious movement which 
was felt for many years. But towards the close of the 
eighteenth century there was another period of reli- 
gious decline. The great revivals of the first third of 
the present century raised the churches to a higher 
plane of religious activity than they had ever known 
before. But it led also to a separation from the old 
Puritan churches of a large number of people who 

1 The Puritan in England and New England, p. 327 ; The Reli- 
gious Life in New England, Dr. G. L. Walker. 



30 THE FUTURE OF THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 

had lost their faith in the Divinity of Our Lord, 
and in some other doctrines of the Evangelical 
churches. 1 

So there have been these oscillations of the pen- 
dulum. But the point I insist upon is this : these 
changes have been temporary, and self-limited. 
There are strong reasons for the opinion that they 
cannot permanently weaken the hold of religion 
upon men. On the whole, the kingdom of Christ 
has extended its influence in each of the centuries 
of its history. 

II. 

Passing from this historical view of the changes 
which have accompanied religious progress in the 
world, it is important to notice the fact that the 
religion of Christ does not depend upon science, or 
speculations, or upon the state of opinion among men, 
for its basis or for its growth. " Neither shall they 
say, Lo here ! or, lo there ! for behold the kingdom 
of God is within you." The basis of religion is in 
the constitution of the human soul. God made man 
" in His image and after His likeness," made him for 
communion and fellowship with Himself; and this 
communion and fellowship with God is the one 
great object of the Christian revelation. It is to 
know God ; to " acquaint ourselves with Him and be 
at peace ; " " to abide in Him." " This is life eter- 
nal," said our Lord, " that they might know thee, the 
only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast 

1 Some Aspects of the Religious Life of New England, by Dr. G. L. 
Walker, lectures iii., iv., v. 



THE FUTURE OF THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 31 

sent." 2 Religion is possible for man because he 
has religious faculties, just as knowledge is possible 
for man because he has intellectual faculties, just as 
the cultivation of taste is possible because he has 
the sense of the beautiful. Religion grows out of 
a sense of dependence and of obligation. Its final 
object is to bring us to God. When man is in con- 
nection with God he will be like Him ; that is, he 
will be pure and holy. 

God has provided for this in the constitution of 
our moral nature. He has not left Himself without 
a witness. He has written His law upon our hearts. 
We know in our own consciousness that we are free 
and that we are responsible. We do not learn of 
God from others. As we know ourselves as per- 
sonal and responsible, so we know God as the First 
Cause, — the Being to whom we are responsible. 
With such a moral and religious nature, man has 
a foundation for religion. This is the reason why 
men of different tribes, and different stages of cul- 
ture have had some form of worship. This is the 
reason why we have no instance in history of a 
nation that has given up religion. Sometimes a 
nation has changed its gods (though not often), just 
as sometimes a nation has changed its style of dress, 
and its food, and its government, its laws, its music, 
and its language. But a nation does not give up all 
food, or music, or language, or government, or law; 
because men are so made that they need these 
things. For the same reason a nation does not 
give up religion. 

1 St. John xvii. 3. 



32 THE FUTURE OF THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 

Let me suggest, further, that as each one of the 
natural senses has its own specific object, so each 
part of our intellectual and spiritual being has its 
own specific object. We do not judge of a painting 
by the sense of smell. We do not judge of music 
by sight. A man who has always been blind cannot 
form a conception of color. And so it is that each 
part of our complex being takes cognizance of its 
own specific objects. Now, the religious faculty has 
its own specific objects, just as the other faculties 
have theirs. A man cannot judge of religion by 
the sense of touch or of smell. He cannot judge of 
religion by his aesthetic nature. For religion is not 
a matter of taste. He cannot judge of religion by 
any of the processes or results of natural science, 
for religion does not belong to the natural world, 
but to the supernatural. The kingdom of God is not 
in protoplasm. The kingdom of God is not in that 
deep-sea ooze to which Prof. Huxley gave the name 
of Bathybius. The kingdom of God is not in the 
crucible of the chemist Nobody need expect to 
find God among the ashes, or to distil His essence 
from the gases. The claims of religion cannot be 
affected by the decision of the questions concerning 
the origin of species. The doctrine of development 
has nothing to do with the doctrine of human re- 
sponsibility or of immortality, — with the doctrine 
of prayer, or of the forgiveness of sin. 

It is also true that God is present in the world to 
secure the development of the religious nature which 
He has given to man. He has given a revelation of 
so much truth as we need to know. He is sending 



THE FUTURE OF THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 33 

His Spirit to convince us of our need of Him, and 
to guide us in the way to eternal life. 



III. 

If these positions be admitted, it follows that the 
progress of natural science cannot affect the foun- 
dations of spiritual religion, because natural science 
does not have anything to do with those foundations. 
How is it possible, for example, that the science of 
nature should prove that there is no God? For, 
first, that would be proving a negative, which is 
always difficult. Then, the purpose of science is 
to investigate nature, not the Author of nature. 
Suppose it should be proved that all natural pro- 
cesses are governed by stable and definite laws. 
Very well; is not God the Author of those laws? 
Are not those laws simply the ways in which the 
Almighty exerts His power? Suppose it should be 
proved that all the various kinds of life, vegetable 
and animal, have been derived from a few original 
types, or that all these types should be reduced to 
one, would not the question still remain, how came 
that one life to exist? Whence had it that myste- 
rious power wrapped up within itself, which could 
develop into all those myriad forms of life? And 
that is a question which science cannot answer. 
Science, at the utmost, can only remove the ques- 
tion of a Creator a little further back. It is a more 
wonderful thing to create that germ which had within 
itself " the promise and potency of all life," that first 
life from which, in the progress of ages, may have 



34 THE FUTURE OF THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 

come beasts and birds, and creeping things, and man 
himself, than to have made these " each after his 
kind." Suppose that all the stars of heaven have 
been evolved from the star dust, — who made the 
star dust? who gave to it its wonderful properties? 
whose power set it in motion, and secured its evolu- 
tion? Can science tell? 

Take the question, which some one has stated re- 
cently, " whether we are our bodies ; " whether that 
which we mean when we say "ourselves " is anything 
more than the body of flesh and blood ; the question, 
indeed, whether man has a spiritual and an immortal 
part. Science can show that the mind is affected by 
the body. An English writer states the facts in this 
striking way : " Body and mind have visible relations 
to each other. There is organic unity in the whole 
man. Touch the smallest fibre of the corporeal man, 
and in some infinitesimal way we may trace the effect 
up into the higher pinnacles of spiritual life. Man 
is one, however compound. Fire his conscience and 
he blushes. Check his circulation and he thinks 
wildly, or thinks not at all. Impair his secretions 
and moral sense is dulled, his aspirations flag, his 
hope, love, and faith reel. Impair them still more 
and he becomes a brute. A cup of drink degrades 
his moral nature below that of a swine. A lancet will 
restore him from delirium to clear thought. Excess 
of thought will waste his muscles. An emotion will 
double the strength of his muscles. And at last the 
prick of a needle, or a grain of mineral will, in an in- 
stant, lay to rest forever his body and its unity, and 
all the spontaneous activities of intelligence, feeling, 



THE FUTURE OF THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 35 

and action with which that compound organism was 
charged." * 

So far science can go, because science has the 
instruments that are needful to investigate the pro- 
cesses. But it cannot go beyond this and tell us 
that man is simply an organism, that it is the body 
that thinks and feels and wills, that " imagination 
is simply the vibration of a particular fibre," that 
love and joy and hope are simply the results of 
physiological changes. Science has no instruments 
by which to gain a knowledge of these deeper things. 
Nor can science show us that our longings for im- 
mortality are delusive, or that the sense of respon- 
sibility is idle ; that our longings after God, even 
the living God, that the earnestness of prayer, the 
raptures of devotion, the faith of the Christian, are 
all vain. 

Natural science can never, by searching, find out 
God. It has no instrument by which to take the 
dimensions of a soul. It cannot weigh a thought, or 
analyze an affection. It cannot tell us why music 
pleases us, why falsehood excites our reprobation, 
why virtue wins our approval, or why we turn towards 
the Power above when flesh and heart are failing 
us. It is one of the best results of investigation to 
recognize the limitations of our faculties. Up to 
those limitations we can go, with a prospect of gain- 
ing real knowledge ; but it is idle for finite man 
to try to go beyond the limits of his own reason and 
understanding. 

1 The Soul and the Future Life, in " The Nineteenth Century," 
June, 1877. 



36 THE FUTURE OF THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 

IV. 

We should add to this consideration the fact that 
the positive evidence which supports our belief in the su- 
pernatural is such as ought to carry us over all the 
difficulties which can arise in science or philosophy. 

For that evidence has its own independent basis. 
It comes from our moral being, and no evidence 
from natural science or speculation can touch that. 
We know of colors by sight; we know of sounds by 
hearing; we judge of the beautiful by our aesthetic 
nature. So we judge of that which is spiritual by 
our moral and religious nature. 

God has not left us to find out spiritual truth by 
reasoning, any more than He has left us to find out 
our food by chemical analysis. Our natural instincts 
teach us to eat, and a deeper spiritual instinct teaches 
us to turn towards the Power above us. The reality 
of religion never can depend upon long and intricate 
argument. For then nobody could gain a knowl- 
edge of that which is religious until he was able to 
argue. But the kingdom of Christ is for little chil- 
dren, — for the wayfaring man. It is not a phi- 
losophy. The little child sees the beauty of a flower, 
and is delighted with it. So that same child sees 
that it ought to do what is right, and feels that it 
ought not to do wrong, and that it deserves to be 
blamed when it has done wrong. And when you tell 
the child that God is good, and that He would have 
all of us do right, its mind is already prepared for the 
truth. The idea of God only waits to be developed. 
As the mind enlarges, these ideas of God and of duty 



THE FUTURE OF THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 37 

and of responsibility develop more and more. It is 
these ideas which have to do with the kingdom of 
our Lord. And children are nearer to God than the 
rest of us, because these moral ideas are with them 
so fresh and so controlling. 

These moral and religious ideas have had more to 
do with the history of the human mind than all other 
ideas. Are not the oldest monuments connected 
with religion? Is not the oldest poetry full of re- 
ligious ideas? Are not the three greatest epic poems 
the world possesses pervaded by a sense of the super- 
natural? Take the great dramas of Sophocles, of 
Shakespeare, and of Goethe, — are they not full of 
the deepest moral elements? In Macbeth, as one 
has recently said, " the main thing is not that Dun- 
can the murdered king is dead, but that Macbeth the 
murderer lives ; not that Duncan sleeps, but that 
Macbeth can sleep no more." 1 So " it is conscience 
that doth make cowards of us all." So it is that 
" the dread of something after death puzzles the 
will," and holds us back from the evil we desire to 
do. Remorse poisons all the sources of pleasure. 
The desire for the favor of God leads men every- 
where to send up their prayers to heaven, and offer 
their gifts and sacrifices upon the altars. The very 
deepest experiences of human life grow out of the 
sense of spiritual relations, and the longings for 
spiritual perfection. 

Can we suppose that all this is a delusion? Can 
we believe that these deepest thoughts, these high- 
est aspirations, these purest affections are vain? 

1 Questions of Belief, p. 341. 



38 THE FUTURE OF THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 

Say, rather, that the things you see and handle are 
illusions; that the voices you hear come from no- 
where; that the things you taste are non-existent; 
that there are no such things as beautiful forms 
and sweet sounds; that all knowledge is delusive 
and vain. Say this, say anything rather than that 
these deep thoughts and feelings and experiences, 
these longings for immortality, these prayers return- 
ing with blessings to our souls, these hours of com- 
munion with God are delusions. Be it that we are 
mocked and befooled by the sight of our eyes, and 
the hearing of our ears, and by all the action of 
our intellects; but let it not be that these highest, 
holiest, divinest movements of spiritual life are only 
mocking and deceiving us. 

It is very true there are perplexities concerning 
these spiritual truths. It is easy for ingenious rea- 
soners to exaggerate these difficulties. It is not 
necessary for us to be able to clear them all away. 
A child can raise questions which a philosopher can- 
not solve. A skilful rhetorician can easily place 
these difficulties in a very striking light. " Words," 
says old Homer, " make this way and that way, — 
great is the power of words ; " but these moral 
instincts which are born with us, these religious 
ideas which are always making themselves- felt, 
whether we will or not, are the most permanent 
of facts. Many a humble Christian, who cannot 
begin to reply to the objections of scientific unbe- 
lief, furnishes in his own life an evidence of the 
reality of spiritual religion which these objectors 
cannot gainsay. 



THE FUTURE OF THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 39 

" The kingdom of God is among you." Religion 
is of the heart. It is the communion of a devout 
mind with God. It is thus its own evidence. " We 
speak that we know, and testify that we have seen." 
It is an experience. Even if the Bible could be dis- 
credited and destroyed, the grounds of religion would 
remain. They existed before there was any Bible. 
As long as men can come into communication with 
God, in a direct and personal way, with their weak- 
ness and their sin, religion will exist. 

The strength and permanence of the kingdom of 
Christ depend upon this : that the Bible interprets 
these deepest moral feelings of ours, and interprets 
them correctly. The teaching of Christ commends 
itself to the ethical nature of man. If it did not, he 
could not receive it as divine. For it is impossible 
for a man to receive any doctrine of religion which 
he perceives to be contrary to reason or to morality. 
But it is the strength of the Christian religion that it 
commends itself " to every man's conscience in the 
sight of God." 

These are the reasons why the attacks of unbelief 
upon the kingdom of our Lord have been so unsuc- 
cessful. If men have been disposed to yield to them 
for a time, their own spiritual wants have brought 
them back again to the Faith. This is the reason 
why we may confidently expect that the religion 
of Christ will extend over the world. If it were 
a speculation, a dogma, a science, it might come 
to naught. But as it appeals to the deepest and 
most spiritual part of us, it must live. It will win 



40 THE FUTURE OF THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 

its way to the hearts of men. Those " who labor and 
are heavy laden " will seek this rest for their souls. 
Those who carry the burdens of sin will behold Him 
" who taketh away the sin of the world." And all 
those who seek communion with infinite purity and 
love will come unto the All-Father for peace and par- 
don and eternal life. In their lighter moods men will 
still say, " Lo, here ! " or " Lo, there ! " but in their 
seasons of profoundest feeling they will come to Him 
who " is able to save unto the uttermost all who come 
unto God by Him." " His kingdom is an everlast- 
ing kingdom, and His dominion is from generation 
to generation." 



III. 

LOVE TO CHRIST, THE TRUE MOTIVE IN 
THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 



III. 

LOVE TO CHRIST THE TRUE MOTIVE IN 
THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

For the love of Christ cotistraineth -us. — 2 Cor. v. 14. 

By the love of Christ in this passage, we are to 
understand Christ's love for us. This love seemed 
to the Apostle so great that it ought to rule his life. 
Since Christ has died for us, " they which live should 
no longer live unto themselves, but unto Him who 
for their sakes died and rose again." This motive, 
St. Paul says, held him in bonds, — shut him in from 
the lower and personal objects of life. He had 
spoken before of thzfearof the Lord — or, as the older 
version has it, " the terrors of the Lord " — as a mo- 
tive, for he says, " We must all appear before the 
judgment seat of Christ; " but, after all, it is love and 
not fear that directs his life. 

The best illustration of the meaning of the text is 
the story of Paul's own life. We can trace the his- 
tory of his Christian enthusiasm. We know the day 
and the hour when his love for Christ began. We 
know what sort of man he was before, and what he 
became afterwards. The earnestness of his preach- 
ing, his disregard of personal interest, the zeal that 



44 LOVE TO CHRIST. 

was never dampened, the courage with which he 
faced danger and persecution, — all show that the 
ruling power in his life was gratitude and love to the 
divine Redeemer. It was not chiefly interest in a 
great cause. Nor was it mainly the 'impulse of hu- 
manity. His addresses and his epistles show that 
the ruling power in his life was love for the Christ. 
He speaks of himself as " the servant of Jesus Christ," 
" called to be an apostle," " separated unto the gos- 
pel of God." * He gave his whole heart to Christ 
in return for the fulness of divine love which he 
found in Him, and this changed not only the plan 
of his life, but also his personal character, and made 
him a patient, humble, and self-denying apostle and 
missionary. 

The text will lead me to speak of The Love of Christ 
as the true motive in the Christian life, 

I. 

I begin by saying that there is no true obedience 
to God except that which is free and hearty. God is 
love, and love is the fulfilling of His law. The great 
commandment is: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy 
God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself." 2 
A religion of fear does not meet this requirement, nor 
a religion of duty, nor a religion that springs from 
self-interest. One child in a family may be obedi- 
ent because he is afraid of punishment, another be- 
cause he expects a reward, and a third because he 
feels that it would be wrong to disobey. But the 

1 Romans i. i. 2 St. Mark xii. 31. 



LOVE TO CHRIST. 45 

really dutiful child obeys his father and his mother 
because he loves them. His motive is not fear, or 
self-interest, or duty, but affection. He fears nothing 
so much as to grieve them. He desires nothing so 
much as to please them. His duty is his delight, 
because his heart is in it. Love is the true basis of 
religion, — love to God, our Father, the purest and 
best of beings. This must have been the original reli- 
gion of mankind, which bound them to the Creator as 
dutiful and loving children. 

This was the religion of the Old Testament. God 
chose Israel as His own people, and sought to lead 
them to do His will, as the expression of their grati- 
tude and affection. So far as they were really His 
people, they entered into this religion of love. Abra- 
ham believed God, and his faith was a loving trust in 
Him. David said, " As the hart panteth after the 
water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O 
God." a The Psalms reveal the same struggles with 
sin, and the same sense of dependence upon God's 
mercy, and the same trust in His love, that a devout 
Christian feels, so that they are the best means we 
have to express all the phases of a Christian experi- 
ence. The religion of the prophets was also a re- 
ligion of love. God revealed Himself to draw them 
by the excellence of His character. 

On the other hand, the religions of the heathen 
have been, for the most part, religions of fear and sel- 
fishness, or, at the best, religions of duty. There 
has been no love in them. Men have always felt 
dependent. Many of the evils they suffer are ob- 

1 Psalms xlii. i. 



46 LOVE TO CHRIST. 

scure and mysterious, and imagination creates for 
our minds unseen agents and powers of evil, and fear 
has led to the cruel rites of paganism. Conscience 
has added to the fears of men. St. Paul saw men all 
about him who were governed by such motives as 
these in their religious services. When he stood on 
Mars Hill he did not address a people without re- 
ligious ideas, for he was surrounded by the most 
beautiful temples the world has ever seen ; but a 
people whose religious ideas needed to be corrected 
by the teachings of Christ. The world was full of 
religions — such as they were — before Christ came. 
What He added to religion was not so much new 
truths as a fuller revelation of the love of God. He 
was able to bring God so near to men that His love 
now rules their lives. 

II. 

Let us see, in the next place, How Christ re- 
vealed God to men. We may take St. Paul as a rep- 
resentative of the more enlightened men of his time. 
He knew God before he had any knowledge of the 
personal Christ, for he was familiar with the Old 
Testament, and especially with God's dealings with 
Israel; and with the sacrifices, and all the services 
of the temple. He knew God not only as He is re- 
vealed in nature and in conscience, but he knew Him 
as the Leader of His people, their Lawgiver, and 
their moral Governor. He did not need another 
prophet to reveal God. All that prophets could do 
to this end had been done by those wonderful men 



LOVE TO CHRIST. 47 

whose inspired writings were read in the synagogues 
every Sabbath day. Nor did St. Paul need new 
miracles to authenticate God's revelation. The one 
thing that he did need was to bring these truths so 
near to his heart that they would mould his character 
and control his life. In order to do this, Paul needed, 
in some way, to come nearer to God as a personal 
Friend and Helper. 

This is what the Incarnation does. He who " was 
in the beginning with God, and who was God," " was 
made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His 
glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, 
full of grace and truth." 1 We count our years from 
the day of His birth, because that day marks the 
beginning of a new era. The angels sang " peace on 
earth, good will to men," because a Saviour was born. 
The leading fact in redemption, on which all the rest 
depends, is the fact that the Son of God became the 
Son of Man so as to reveal God to men more per- 
fectly. In this sense, it is no doubt true that it is 
not so much the work of Christ that is important 
as the Person of Christ, — the fact that " God was in 
Christ reconciling the world unto Himself," that He 
who is the " effulgence of His glory and the very image 
of His substance" 2 took our nature, and became our 
Brother, bearing our griefs and our sorrows. He did 
this, we are told again and again, so as to commend 
the love of God unto us. In very deed, " though He 
was rich, for our sakes He became poor, that we, 
through His poverty might become rich." 3 This is 
what He always claimed, that His Father had sent 
1 St. John i. 14. 2 Heb. i. 3. 3 2 Cor. viii. 9. 



48 LOVE TO CHRIST. 

Him, because He loved sinful men, and desired to 
save them. He said, " He that hath seen Me hath 
seen the Father," and He taught that " men should 
honor the Son even as they honor the Father." 
This, then, is the great fact in respect to the life of 
our Lord : that the Son of God became flesh, and 
dwelt with men, that he might in that way reveal 
God to them. 

As we read the Gospels, we are impressed, first of 
all, with the reality of His life. He was as truly 
human as He was divine. He did not come among 
men as a full-grown man, but as an infant. He did not 
separate Himself from the experiences of a common 
human life, but He was born into a family ; He was 
subject unto His parents, as other children are ; He 
increased in wisdom and in stature ; He went, " as His 
custom was, to the synagogue " on the Sabbath day. 

If the Son of God were to live among men, to 
reveal God to them, He would need to enter very 
fully into the experiences of men. He could have 
been born in a palace, and lived the life of a prince. 
Or He could have been born into a home of wealth, 
and lived in luxury, apart from the masses of men. 
Or He could have been such a man as John the 
Baptist, who dwelt in the deserts, and shunned the 
companionship of men, and the pure joys of life. 
But the life of Jesus touched the common lives of 
men at the greatest number of points. He did not 
shield himself from the experiences of common men 
by wealth, or rank, or station. He was a man of the 
people ; born in poverty, as the largest number of 
men have been. He shared the conditions of a 



LOVE TO CHRIST. 49 

humble home, in a small country town ; and in His 
later life, He had not even such a place as that to 
shelter Him. It is true that when He was trans- 
figured, " His face did shine as the sun, and His gar- 
ments became white as the light." 2 But this was 
only once in His lifetime. For the rest, He lived 
with the common people and wore the dress of a 
common man, and shared the food of fishermen, and 
ate with publicans and sinners. He was not a man 
of exclusive tastes, or of narrow sympathies. He 
went, not only to the dwellings of the poor, but to 
the homes of the rich ; not only to places of sorrow, 
but into scenes of festivity. He was a true Son of 
man, linked with the highest and with the lowest, 
in full sympathy with little children, and with 
young men, and with all such as suffer, and with 
the tempted and the fallen ; and His gracious words 
as truly as His gracious acts revealed in a hu- 
man life the wonderful love of God. It was by 
this life among men that Jesus was fitted to bear 
our sins. We do not understand the Atonement 
until we understand the deep meaning of the life of 
our Lord. He was fitted to bear our sins, because 
he had first borne our griefs and our sorrows. He 
made Himself an offering for sin by His own volun- 
tary act, showing how much God loved us by taking 
our condemnation, and honoring the justice of God 
by His sacrificial death. 

There is no other thing that awakens so deep an 
interest in us as the experiences of a brother man. 
We see the evidences of God's goodness and wisdom 

1 St. Matthew xvii. 4. 
4 



50 LOVE TO CHRIST. 

in nature ; we read the revelations He has made in 
the older Scriptures ; but they do not touch us very 
deeply. But when we come to know the love of God 
in sending His Son to die for us, as a man may die 
for his friend, then " the love of Christ constraineth 
us." 

Some time ago I studied a painting, by an Ameri- 
can artist, which is called " The Heart of the Andes." 
I was impressed at once by the grandeur of the 
mountains. My eye followed the valleys that opened 
on this side and on that, — valleys shadowed by 
mountains that seemed to bear up the very heavens. 
It was a view of nature in her loftier moods. But, after 
all, the picture is cold, and fails to kindle one's ima- 
gination until he looks at the hunter's cabin in the 
foreground, from which the smoke of the morning 
fire is rising, and at the hunters themselves, who 
stand leaning on their rifles, looking down the valley. 
That glimpse of human life, in those awful solitudes, 
touches deeper sympathies than nature can move; 
aye, that life adds sublimity to the mountains them- 
selves, because their shadows fall on living men. 

God has painted for us on the great historic can- 
vas of this world a picture which is to reveal His 
goodness. It is very beautiful, full of the tokens of 
His wisdom and goodness. He hung up the picture 
that men might study it, and might see His glory. 
But they did not regard it. They worshipped idols, 
the work of their own hands. After a few centuries 
the divine Artist retouched the picture, bringing out 
new and more wonderful illustrations of His holiness 
and His love. But still the world passed it by. In 



LOVE TO CHRIST. 5 1 

the fulness of time, God painted, in the foreground 
of the picture, a human form, — the form of the well- 
beloved Son ; a " Man of sorrows and acquainted 
with grief;" " His visage so marred, more than any 
man, and His form more than the sons of men," 1 and 
this divine Man is pointing to His own Cross, and 
telling those who labor and are heavy laden to come 
unto Him, and find rest for their souls. And now 
the old picture stirs the world, according to Christ's 
own words, " And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, 
will draw all men unto me." 2 That one sensitive, 
personal Being, divine and yet human, our Lord and 
yet our Brother, who loves us with all a brother's 
affection, brings God near to us. One real look at 
the cross must melt any human heart. And so the 
love of Christ is subduing the world unto Him. God 
is so near that He draws us, and we follow Him. 
His love kindles our love, and we become His chil- 
dren because we are the children of His love, for 
"whosoever loveth is born of God, and knoweth 
God, for God is love." 3 

III. 

We come, then, in the last place, to consider 
How the love of Christ has directed the lives of His 
disciples. 

Here, too, we may well go back to the times of 
the Apostles, and see how they presented Christ, and 
how the early Christians received Him. It is very 
plain that the great effort of the Apostles was to pre- 

1 Isa. liii. 3. 2 St. John xii. 32. 3 1 John iv. 7. 



52 LOVE TO CHRIST. 

sent the personal Christ to men. It was not a system 
of philosophy or of doctrines which they preached, 
nor a new organization, but a Saviour whom they 
had seen, and whose teachings they were able to 
repeat. "We are His witnesses," they said. He has 
called us, and sent us to you. His is the only name 
by which you can be saved. " I determined to know 
nothing among you save Jesus Christ." J In fact, the 
name which was naturally given to the disciples was 
Christians, as the personal followers of the Christ. 

You will call to mind also that this is the way in 
which our Saviour Himself talked to men. The 
most common direction He gave was this : " Follow 
me." "I am the Way," He said, " and the Truth, 
and the life." 2 " If any man thirst, let him come 
unto me." " Come unto me all ye that labor, and 
are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." 3 Moses 
did not teach men so. Samuel did not. None of 
the prophets would have dared to teach men to come 
unto them for rest and salvation. They called upon / 
men to obey the commands of God, and to do His * 
will. But Christ called men to Himself. He called 
for their supreme devotion. They must leave all 
else for His sake. They must not count their lives 
dear unto themselves. " If any man will be my dis- 
ciple let him deny himself, and take up the cross and 
follow me." 4 

This personal devotion to Christ has characterized 
the lives of Christians in all the periods of spiritual 
prosperity. The early disciples confessed Him be- 

1 i Cor. ii. 2. 3 St. Matthew xi. 28. 

2 St. John xiv. 6. 4 St. Matthew xvi. 24. 



LOVE TO CHRIST. 53 

fore their persecutors. They went to their martyr- 
dom because they would not deny Him. " Eighty 
and six years have I served Him," said Polycarp, 
" and He has always been my Helper, and shall I now 
deny Him to save my life?" 1 The early hymns of 
the Church are full of this tender personal devotion. 
The early confessions and creeds place Christ in 
the centre, as the one object of faith and love. The 
early missionaries went forth only in His name, to 
make known the Saviour to the pagans. 

It was only as religion declined that the attention 
of men was absorbed in the Church as a great or- 
ganization, and in systems of doctrine, and in methods 
of worship. Whenever the life of piety has been re- 
kindled in the Church, the love of Christ has revived, 
and He has become again the one object of love and 
of faith. 

This love always leads to personal devotion. The 
disciple gives his whole heart to the Redeemer. His 
love becomes an enthusiasm. It never counts the 
cost. It begins by giving all. So that the love of 
Christ has shown itself to be, by far, the most pow- 
erful motive of human action. It has been stronger 
than the love of wealth, for many have made them- 
selves poor for Christ's sake. It has been stronger 
than the love of friends or of country, for many have 
left father, and mother, and native land, to preach 
Christ to the heathen. In fact, there is no heroism 
in this world except that which is inspired by love, 
and there is no sort of heroism so common or so 
grand as that which is inspired by the love of Christ. 

1 Ante-Nicene Christian Fathers, vol. 1., p. 88. 



54 LOVE TO CHRIST. 

This love also unites us with Christ. Faith reveals 
God and spiritual things to the believer, so that he 
knows God and Christ according to these profound 
words of our Lord : " This is life eternal, that 
they might know Thee, the only true God, and 
Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." * It is only in 
this way of love and trust that we can know Him 
whom we have not seen, and know the things that 
are spiritual. It is not by the understanding, with 
its slow processes, but by a direct beholding, when the 
heart is opened to God, and He reveals Himself to us, 
that we gain a sense of the reality of the spiritual, 
which uplifts us from the earth, and fills us with long- 
ing for the glory that shall be revealed. 

This personal love for Christ also leads to the con- 
fidence of faith. Perfect love casteth out fear. " We 
live as seeing Him who is invisible," and " we know 
that nothing shall be able to separate us from His 
love, neither things present, nor things to come." 

Thus we see that true religion has its beginning in 
God's love for us, and that love is its very life and 
soul. "The love of Christ constraineth us," because 
He revealed the very heart of God, and that love 
draws us towards God by an attraction constant as 
that which holds the suns and constellations in their 
revolutions about the central throne. 

This is a truth concerning the essential thing in 
our religion which men are always forgetting. They 
are apt to think of some experiences, or some out- 
ward duties, when they should think of union with 

1 St. John xvii. 3. 



LOVE TO CHRIST. 55 

Christ. There have been times when it was more 
common to appeal to the fears and the selfish desires 
of men, than to their consciences and their hearts. 
The progress of religion in our day is indicated by 
the emphasis which the pulpit now places upon the 
motives that come from the love of Christ. Our 
modern theology gives Christ the central position, 
and exalts the cross to the highest place among the 
motives to lead men from lives of sin. 

I think, too, that the emphasis which is now placed 
upon the love of Christ is making the religious life 
more cheerful and more fruitful. It is adding to the 
gentleness, and generosity, and consecration of Chris- 
tians. It is making our methods of worship more 
simple, and is leading to a new interest in the service 
of song. It is drawing the children to the Saviour, 
and is filling the land with Societies of Christian 
Endeavor. It is bringing the branches of the divided 
Church into a closer union. This love, which was 
kindled by the love of Christ, is sending missionaries 
to every tribe and nation. This love for Christ is 
yet to overcome the evil of the world, and to lead 
greater masses of men to holiness and to God. 

Let us enter with all our hearts into this life of 
love. Let us seek to come so near to the heart of 
our Redeemer, that we " being rooted and grounded 
in love, may be, able to comprehend with all saints 
what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height ; 
and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowl- 
edge, that we may be filled with all the fullness of 
God." 1 

1 Ephesians iii. 19. 



IV. 

CHRIST, THE MAN OF SORROWS. 



IV. 

CHRIST, THE MAN OF SORROWS. 

A Ma?i of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. 

Isaiah liii. 3. 

The prophet was writing a great while before the 
Saviour was born of what God had revealed to him 
concerning the expected Redeemer. Isaiah was per- 
mitted to look through the dim vistas of seven cen- 
turies, and this is what he saw at the end : — " his 
visage was so marred more than any man, and his 
form more than the sons of men : " " he hath no form 
nor comeliness : and when we see him there is no 
beauty that we should desire him : " " a man of sor- 
sows and acquainted with grief." 1 Abraham had 
seen his day long before and had rejoiced, because 
that through Him all the families of the earth would 
be blessed. 2 Moses had some knowledge of His 
coming, and of the blessings He would bring to His 
people. So had David and Nathan the prophet. 
But Isaiah was a little nearer His time, and his vision 
was more distinct. The glory of the golden period 
in the history of Israel had faded. The Kingdom 
of Solomon had been divided, and at last the ten 
tribes had gone into captivity. Judah only remained, 

1 Isa. Hi. 14 : liii. 2-3. 2 Genesis xii. 3. 



60 CHRIST, THE MAN OF SORROWS. 

and her power was diminishing. It was natural for 
the Jews to look with increasing interest for the ad- 
vent of the Messiah, who was expected to bring 
them deliverance. And this is the picture revealed 
to the prophet; the only distinct view which any 
prophet had ever gained : — the suffering Saviour, 
wounded for our transgressions ; bruised for our ini- 
quities ; on whom " the Lord hath laid the iniquity 
of us all." 1 This was the promised Redeemer ; the 
Prince of the house of David, for whose advent their 
fathers had been praying for generations. 

I. 

Let us compare this prophetic vision of the expected 
Messiah with His actual life in the world. 

Our divine Lord accepted a heritage of sorrow in 
taking our human nature with its limitations. He 
who was in the beginning with God, 2 who ruled the 
spiritual world, took the form of a servant, was born 
of a woman, became an infant of days, and from His 
state of infancy, " increased in wisdom and stature, and 
in favor with God and men." 3 We sometimes say 
of our friends who have gone to heaven, that we 
would not call them back to the sorrows of this life 
if we had the power. But what is the blessedness 
they would leave in comparison with that which He 
left when "he became flesh and dwelt among us." 4 
It is quite impossible for us to measure His conde- 
scension. He laid aside His glory. He came under 

1 Isaiah liii. 4-7. 3 St. Luke ii. 52. 

2 St. John i. 2. * St. John i. 14. 



CHRIST, THE MAN OF SORROWS. 6l 

the law. He took a lower place as Mediator, so that 
He said with truth, " My Father is greater than I." * 
He became dependent so that He needed to pray ; 
— He, in whose name all our prayers are offered. 
He was hungry, and thirsty, and weary, and grieved, 
and " in all points tempted like as we are." 2 " Himself 
took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses." 3 

Add to this His lowly condition. The highest 
condition among men would involve infinite conde- 
scension in the Son of God. If He were to come to 
this world at all, it would seem fitting that He should 
come with all the dignity of a princely birth, in the 
court of a king. If there be any value in these 
human distinctions, He deserves them all. But how 
wide the contrast. He was born in Bethlehem, — not 
in Jerusalem. " There was no room for them in the 
inn." 4 Mary " wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and 
laid Him in the manger." 5 They had to flee into 
Egypt by night. When Herod was dead they came 
and dwelt in Nazareth ; " Can any good thing come 
out of Nazareth?" 6 He was known sometimes as 
the carpenter's son, and sometimes as the carpenter. 
He wore the dress of a Galilean peasant, so that the 
scribes wondered that one of such an appearance 
could so much as read. " Though He was rich, yet 
for our sakes He became poor ; " 7 and it meant a 
great deal more to be poor at that time in Palestine 
than it means here and now. There were only two 
classes then, and the gulf between the rich and the 

1 St. John xiv. 28. s Ibid. 

2 Hebrews iv. 15. 6 St. John 1. 46. 

3 St. Matthew viii. 17. 7 2 Cor. viii. 9. 

4 St. Luke ii. 7. 



62 CHRIST, THE MAN OF SORROWS. 

poor was very wide. Influence, power, entrance to 
the higher circles, — these were for the rich ; but 
for the common people, there was little honor or 
sympathy. But Jesus took His place among them. 
His companions were the fishermen of Galilee. He 
addressed those of His own class. "The common 
people heard Him gladly." * But He was poor even 
among the lowly. " The foxes have holes, and the 
birds of the heaven have nests, but the Son of man 
hath not where to lay His head." 2 

And then, " He was despised and rejected of men." 
" He came unto His own, and His own received Him 
not." 3 Many of those who followed Him for a time 
" went back, and walked no more with Him," so that 
He said to His disciples, "will ye also go away?" 
Some have spoken of the loneliness of Christ. Very 
few, even of His disciples, were able to enter into the 
spiritual truths He was teaching. They were " slow 
of heart to receive all that the prophets had spoken." 
There was no one in all the world able to appreciate 
the revelation He was making. The larger number of 
the leaders of the people were enemies of the truth. 

So that Jesus was brought at every step into con- 
tact with sin. It had never taken on forms so atro- 
cious. It added to His sorrows inasmuch as He was 
revealing the love of God towards the children of 
men. If men despised and rejected Him, it went to 
His heart, like the ingratitude of a son to the heart 
of an affectionate father. We can appreciate the 
sorrows of Jesus when we see Him at the close of 

1 St. Mark xii. 37. 3 Isa. liii. 3 : St. John i. 11. 

2 St. Matthew viii. 20. 



CHRIST, THE MAN OF SORROWS. 63 

His ministry of love, weeping over the holy city, and 
saying : " O Jerusalem, Jerusalem . . . how often 
would I have gathered thy children together, . . . 
but ye would not." 1 Thus, His earthly ministry 
ended in tears, and His life went out under the 
shadow of a great sorrow. 

Add to this life of sorrow the death by crucifixion. 
He had been looking forward to this death for a long 
time. The shadow of the cross was over Him from 
the beginning. He taught His disciples that He had 
come into the world to lay down His life for men. 

So that the prophetic vision did not mislead the 
ancient seer. The man whom he saw in prophetic 
vision was to be pre-eminent among the great suf- 
ferers of the world as " the Man of sorrows." 

We are not to think of the sorrows of the Re- 
deemer as mere accidents in His life. He came to 
the world to do the very things which he actually 
did. All possible modes of life were open to His 
choice, and He selected the life of humiliation and 
poverty and persecution, and the death of the cross. 
" No man taketh it away from me, but I lay it down 
of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have 
power to take it again." 2 

II. 

Why was this way of life chosen? Why 

did not the Saviour of the world follow a mode of 

life more in accordance with the common views of 

reformers? We should not turn aside the edge of the 

1 St. Matthew xxiii. 37. 2 St. John x. 18. 



64 CHRIST, THE MAN OF SORROWS. 

question, for it points us towards the distinctive work 
of the Redeemer. 

Why did not Jesus come as a philosopher, like 
Confucius, or like Socrates, or like some of the lead- 
ers of thought in our day, who believe that the world 
is to be saved by wisdom? Why did He not come 
as an inventor to apply the advancing knowledge of 
the world to the practical arts of life? He might 
have brought in the printing-press fourteen hundred 
years earlier than it came ; and the mariner's com- 
pass, and even steamboats, and railways, and tele- 
graphs, and telephones. He could have set forward 
civilization in these ways, and developed commerce, 
and awakened the human mind to the study of 
nature? Why did He not do these things if the 
highest wants of men are to be met in that way? 

How different a life the Redeemer would have had 
if He had become a geologist, — teaching His dis- 
ciples to read " the testimony of the rocks ; " or if 
He had become a biologist, tracing the course of 
life from the primordial germ up through all the 
stages of its development to a perfected manhood ; 
or if He had become a great poet like Shakespeare, 
or a great statesman, or a jurist who could teach 
men to reconstruct the decaying framework of society 
upon the basis of personal freedom and republican 
government; or if He had been a great warrior, as 
David was, and had brought the surrounding nations 
under the sway of Israel, and sent out the truth of 
God among the nations by means of conquest? 

To my mind these inquiries point the way to the 
distinctive features of the method by which God is 



CHRIST, THE MAN OF SORROWS. 65 

seeking to save the lost world. Unroll, if you please, 
the scroll of history, and read the names of the elect 
geniuses of the race. Here is an eloquent orator, 
there is a teacher of wisdom, a leader and comman- 
der of men, a reformer, a philanthropist, but these 
did not succeed in saving men. When the true 
Redeemer appears, He is " the man of sorrows." 

You cannot account for it by saying that the Jews 
of His time had lost the spirit of religion and become 
formal and hypocritical. For the question still re- 
mains, Why did Jesus begin His life in poverty and 
obscurity? Why was He cradled in a manger, and 
reared in the humble home in distant Galilee? Why 
was His earthly lot cast among the lowly? Why did 
the Almighty permit sorrows to thicken about His 
path, from His birth to His crucifixion? 

We have already seen that this was a matter of 
prophecy. " They parted my garments among them, 
and upon my vesture they did cast lots." ] " They 
pierced my hands and my feet." 2 These are from 
the Psalms. " He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, 
and as a sheep dumb before her shearers, so he 
opened not his mouth." 3 This with much more is 
from Isaiah. Daniel also spoke of a time when 
Messiah should " be cut off." 4 It is clear that the 
Lord had chosen that the Redeemer of men should 
accomplish His work by suffering rather than by 
doing. 

Why was it? 

I should say in general terms because He desired to 
draw all men from their sins and bring them into com- 

1 Ps. xxii. 18. 2 Ps. xxii. 16. 3 Isa. liii. 7. 4 Daniel ix. 26. 

5 



66 CHRIST, THE MAN OF SORROWS. 

munion with God. The great fact was that men were 
estranged from God. The Redeemer must save them 
from their sins. 

Who can measure the power of sympathy that 
draws us to the suffering Saviour? The lost world 
was after all a vast hospital full of the sick and the 
suffering, the weary and the heavy laden, the help- 
less slaves of sin. One does not go to minister to 
the inmates of a hospital with festive robes and the 
insignia of high rank. It is very significant that the 
Saviour of men took our infirmities and sicknesses upon 
Himself. One side of redemption has for its object 
to win sinful men from the ways of evil. Knowledge 
will not do this. Art and poetry and philosophy will 
not do this. Has not vice flourished in the ages of 
the finest artistic culture ? Would any gifts or honors 
of a prince draw a people from the love of sin? 

Men are not made better except by the power of 
goodness. A pure and beautiful life in a dark world, 
— there is no other power like it. Especially if this 
life touches us by some tie of sympathy. If it 
belongs to one who loves us better than all others, 
and takes upon Himself the burden of our suffering, 
and even lays down His life to save us. 

The poverty and sorrow in the life of Jesus bring 
Him into connection with the greatest number of 
men. For poverty and sorrow are the heritage of 
the majority of men. By His condescension to our 
low estate the Redeemer came into the closest re- 
lations with the lives of common men. Others have 
tried to make men better by enlightening their minds, 
but Jesus does it by showing in His own life the 



CHRIST, THE MAN OF SORROWS. 67 

beauty of holiness, and softening their hearts by His 
self-denying love. When men realize that they have 
been sinning against a God of love, and that He has 
sent His son to share their grief and pain so as to 
win them from evil and raise them to the society of 
angels, then they feel the power of the gospel. 

The next reason why the Saviour was the man of 
sorrows comes nearer the central truth of Redemption. 
Jesus came to bear the sins of men. But sin brings 
sorrow. "There is no peace to the wicked." The 
world was made fair as Eden, and was designed to 
be the abode of a happy race. But the evil that 
men do has blighted it all, and hung the very heavens 
with mourning. 

Is there not a certain fitness between the humilia- 
tion and sorrow of the Saviour, and the work He was 
to do for men? I have no assertions to put forth, 
but it has seemed to me that One who was to redeem 
and save the guilty, — those who had arrayed them- 
selves against the Infinite Purity and Love, — that the 
Redeemer of sinful men, ought not to put on anything 
of splendor or glory ; that the fitness of things re- 
quired that He should lay aside whatever high things 
belonged to Him, and take a place somewhat like 
that which sinners deserved. The higher His place 
had been before, the more His voluntary humilia- 
tion would honor the righteousness of God. It has 
seemed fitting that the Redeemer of the sinful should 
humble Himself, and take the place of a servant, and 
live under the shadow of adversity. Not because 
God is implacable. But there is such a thing as 
righteousness, as justice which is the basis of law, 



68 CHRIST, THE MAN OF SORROWS. 

and the moral sentiments of men condemn injustice 
as wrong. Would it be quite congruous, there- 
fore, for one who had come to seek and save the 
sinful, to come to His mission in power and glory, 
sitting upon a throne, living in prosperity, and mak- 
ing his life a triumph? Is it not more fitting that 
He who was " to bear our sins " should be, for the 
short time of His earthly life, a " man of sorrows and 
acquainted with grief ? " 

But this does not by any means exhaust the teach- 
ings of the Bible in respect to the purpose of the 
suffering of our Saviour. Those teachings connect 
His suffering directly with the guilt of men. The 
" altar terms," as they have been called, are very 
commonly used by the writers of the New Testament 
in connection with the suffering and the death of our 
Saviour. In the beginning of His ministry He was 
announced as " The Lamb of God who taketh away 
the sin of the world. 1 " He tells us that His " blood 
was shed for many, unto remission of sins." 2 

It is easy to overstate the truth in respect to this 
matter. It is not a theme for dogmatism. It is not 
true that God was, in any sense, the enemy of the 
sinner, or that He needed to be made friendly by an 
offering. " God so loved the world that He gave 
His only begotten son, that whosoever believeth on 
Him should not perish, but have eternal life." 3 But 
God is holy and righteous. Sin deserves His condem- 
nation. The love of God cannot obscure His justice. 
" Righteousness and judgment are the foundation of 

1 St. John i. 29. 3 St. John iii. 16. 

2 St. Matthew xxvi. 28. 



CHRIST, THE MAN OF SORROWS. 6g 

his throne." 1 " One jot or one tittle shall in no wise 
pass away from the law." 2 I am sure that those who 
have any true sense of the evil desert of sin will feel 
that it was impossible for God to pass it by without an 
expiation. His holiness and His truth forbade it. 

What then are the facts as the Bible states them ? 
Christ came to a sinful world to lay down His life for 
the sins of men. He became our Redeemer, our 
Ransom, our Sacrifice. By His death we have life. 
Through His cross we have the offer of salvation. 
" He bare our sins in His own body on the tree." 3 

How fitting it was, then, that He who was to come 
into so close a relation to the sins of the world should 
be marked out before His birth as " the man of sor- 
rows : " that He whose mission it was to redeem the 
sinful should be one whose " visage was so marred 
more than any man, and His form more than the 
sons of men " : that He who was to atone for human 
guilt should share that lot of pain and persecution, 
which shows so impressively the results of sin ; that 
around His blessed head the storms of life should 
be suffered to beat ; that mockery, and buffeting, and 
the crown of thorns, and the nails piercing His hands 
and His feet should be in His life the symbols as well 
of the hatefulness of sin as of the cost of Redemption ? 

III. 

If these things are so, we can understand why it 
was that the cross of Christ was made so prominent 
in the preaching of the early apostles. For the cross 

1 Ps. xcvii. 2. 2 St. Matt. v. 18. 3 i Peter ii. 24. 



70 CHRIST, THE MAN OF SORROWS. 

represents all that lies deepest in the work of the 
Redeemer. We are saved through His sufferings 
and His death. So that, in the Last Supper, we 
commemorate the death of Christ. The elements 
which He directed us to use represent, not His 
miracles, nor His teachings, nor His pure and per- 
fect life, but " His body broken for us : " " His blood 
shed for the remission of sins." When St. Paul de- 
termined to know nothing " save Jesus Christ and 
Him crucified," * he was laying hold on the central 
element in the gospel. The great victories of Chris- 
tianity have been won by the preaching of the cross. 

We can understand also why the disciples of Christ 
are sometimes appointed to lives of humiliation and of 
suffering. Is it not fitting that we should be par- 
takers of the sufferings of Christ? 2 Is it not fitting 
that we, who have been redeemed with precious blood, 
should bear in our lives some traces of the evil lot 
which we have deserved by our sins? Enough for 
us that we may be forgiven ; enough that heaven will 
know no sorrow. But so long as we are still in the 
world which sin has blighted, it would be unseemly 
if we were to go untouched by sorrow, unscathed by 
the flame. 

Sorrow has for us a cleansing, curative mission. 
Disappointments, bereavements, sicknesses, and infir- 
mities are the means by which we are to be refined 
and purified. " I have refined thee but not as silver : 
I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction." 8 
" Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial 
among you, as though a strange thing happened unto 

1 i Cor. ii. 2. 2 i Peter iv. 13. 3 Isaiah xlviii. 10. 



CHRIST, THE MAN OF SORROWS. 7 1 

you, but rather rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers 
of Christ's sufferings." * " The God of all grace . . . 
after that ye have suffered awhile, make you perfect." 2 
The light of heaven allures us. But this is not heaven. 
This is the pilgrimage, — the time of discipline. We 
are now only in the process of redemption. But our 
Father will keep us. We shall not be tempted above 
that we are able. 3 The joys He sends should awaken 
our gratitude; and even the touch of sorrow is a 
consecrating chrism. 

One other lesson we should learn from the Man 
of Sorrows, which is this : We need to take upon our 
feeling the sorrows of those whom we seek to help and 
save. We need to go down to them, as the Saviour 
did, and bear their griefs and sorrows. We need to 
enter in some real way into sympathy with the suf- 
fering and the sinful, so as to become ourselves men 
of sorrow, " and acquainted with grief." There is 
a sense in which we are to " bear their sins." The 
power that saves men is the power of love, and love 
gives itself joyfully for the object it seeks. We have 
only touched the outer rim of the cup which our 
Saviour drank, so long as we are only sending help 
to the perishing. We begin to drink of His cup, and 
to be baptised with His Baptism, when there is no one 
of the children of sin around us whose case we do 
not make our own, whose sins we do not bear on our 
hearts. This vicarious love will make us the true 
disciples of the Man of Sorrows, and will make us 
sharers of His power to draw all men unto Himself. 

1 1 Peter iv. 12-13. 2 1 Peter v. 10, 3 1 Cor. x. 13. 



V. 
CHRIST OUR LORD AND KING. 



V. 

CHRIST OUR LORD AND KING. 

On His head are many crowns. 

Revelation xix. 12. 

WHO is it who wears the many crowns? 

In the next verse we read, " His name is called 
the Word of God." A little farther on we read, He 
hath a name written on His vesture, "King of kings, 
and Lord of lords." These texts are found in one 
of the last chapters of the last book of the Bible, and 
they give us the latest view of the Redeemer, — the 
view which the inspired writers would have in the 
mind of the Church to the end of the world. It sets 
Him before us as our Lord and King, who rules in 
earth and heaven. " On His head are many crowns," 
or as the revised version reads, " On his head are 
many diadems." He has not one crown but many, 
or rather, the crown has many jewels so that it is 
more brilliant than any other king can ever wear, — 
a crown so resplendent that all others are content to 
cast their crowns at His feet. 

We have to turn back only a few pages in the 
Apocalypse to find a very different representation of 
the Redeemer. John saw in heaven, " A Lamb 
standing as though it had been slain," and he heard 
the new song which said : " Worthy is the Lamb that 
hath been slain to receive the power, and riches, and 



y6 CHRIST OUR LORD AND KING. 

wisdom, and might, and honor, and glory, and bless- 
ing." * These two are combined in that ancient Chris- 
tian emblem, — the Cross and the Crown. Certainly 
we need them both. He was " the man of sorrows." 2 
"His visage was so marred more than any man." 3 
" He was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised 
for our iniquities." 4 His blood was " shed for many 
unto the remission of sins." 5 This is the view of 
the Redeemer that is most common in the thoughts 
of Christians. It is the view upon which the best 
preachers place the strongest emphasis. The best 
hymns of the Church are full of it. It is the view 
which Christian artists have set forth in so many forms 
of imperishable beauty. It is fitting that the cross 
should be the distinctive emblem of Him who has 
tasted " death for every man." 6 But we need the 
other view also to give meaning to His humiliation 
and His suffering, and to give a healthy tone to 
our piety. He came from a throne of glory when 
He became the Son of Man, and He entered again 
into His glory when, after His resurrection, He was 
lifted up from the earth and a cloud received Him 
out of the sight of His disciples. 7 

I do not know that we can think too much of the 
sufferings and death of our Lord, but it is quite pos- 
sible to think too little of the glory which He had 
with the Father before the world was, 8 — the glory 
into which He entered when the atoning work was 

1 Revelation v. 6-12. 5 St. Matthew xxvi. 28. 

2 Isaiah liii. 3. 6 Hebrews ii. 9. 

3 Isaiah Hi. 14. 7 Acts i. 9. 

4 Isaiah liii. 5. 8 St. John xvii. 5. 



CHRIST OUR LORD AND KING. JJ 

done. He is our Lord as truly as He is our Saviour, 
and His glory is greater than His humiliation. 

Let us meditate to-day tipon Christ as our Lord and 
King. 

We can sometimes appreciate things that are 
divine by comparing them with things that are 
human. We may learn to appreciate the crown 
which our Lord wears by comparing it with the 
crowns which the rulers of this world are wear- 
ing. For the crown is no more than a symbol of 
the highest authority. We may be able to work 
towards a comprehension of the King of kings by 
setting His authority alongside that of the rulers 
of men. 

Take as one point of the comparison the extent of 
one's dominions. There is a certain glory in any 
supreme authority. Any one looks with a certain 
respect upon a governor, or a president, or a king. 
But what if one be the ruler of a small country as 
the kings of Saxony are. Is not the queen of Eng- 
land, upon whose dominions the sun never sets, 
greater than the king of a small principality in 
Germany? 

Take as another point of comparison the nature, 
and character, and achievements of a ruler. It is 
easy to see the difference between a ruler whose 
title is simply an inheritance, like that of the present 
emperor of Germany, and one who, like Washington, 
has been the Saviour of his country ; who has won 
for it the position it enjoys by his own suffering and 
his supreme endeavors. If such an one becomes the 
chief ruler, the abundance of his services, and the 



yS CHRIST OUR LORD AND KING. 

excellence of his character will add to the splendor 
of his government. He will rule because he is " first 
in the hearts of his countrymen." And if, in addition 
to all this, the ruler be a large hearted man so that 
the humblest of his people can be sure that he cares 
for him, and that he is ready to counsel and help him 
as the father of his people, is it not plain that every 
admirable quality of his mind and his heart will add 
to the glory of his administration ? In such ways as 
these we can work towards an appreciation of our 
Lord and King. He is above all others, partly be- 
cause of what He is, and partly because of what He 
has done. 

I. 

One of the many crowns of our Lord is the crown 
of Divinity. There is a limit to the authority of the 
highest created being, because, as St. Paul tells us, 
" there is no power but of God ; the powers that 
be are ordained of God." * If, then, our Lord were 
only the highest created being, there would be an 
authority higher than His own to which He would 
owe allegiance. The Apostles said to the Jewish 
rulers, " whether it be right in the sight of God to 
hearken unto you rather than unto God, judge ye," 2 
and a little later they said, " We must obey God rather 
than men." 3 If we were to assign to our Lord a place 
lower than that of Deity, it would be impossible that 
His name should be " above every name," and that 
" in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of 

1 Romans xiii. i. 2 Acts iv. 19. 3 Acts v. 29. 



CHRIST OUR LORD AND KING. 79 

things in heaven, and things in earth, and things 
under the earth, and that every tongue should con- 
fess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God 
the Father." 1 This then is the glory of the Christ, 
that He does not rule by any delegated authority, 
for He is himself the source of all authority and 
power. By Him "Kings reign, and princes decree 
justice." 2 

As He is divine, He has the crown of universal 
dominion. We cannot compare His kingdom with 
any human kingdom, for the greatest of these have 
their limitations. There have been elements of weak- 
ness in empires as imperial as Rome in the time of 
her greatest glory. Thus far in the world's history 
nations have had their periods of growth and of 
decline and fall. The crown of the Caesars has lost 
its lustre, and the iron crown of Charlemagne is only 
a curious relic preserved in a museum, and exhibited 
to modern tourists. The crown which Christ wears 
is not like these. " Of the increase of His govern- 
ment and of peace there shall be no end." 3 

" Jesus shall reign where'er the sun 
Doth his successive journeys run." 

II. 

Our Lord also wears the crown of a complete and 
perfect humanity. The question is, Why should we 
crown Him Lord of all? and the answer is, Because 
He who " was in the beginning with God," and who 
was truly God, 4 has come so near to us as to become 

1 Philippians ii. 9-1 1. 3 Isaiah ix. 7. 

2 Proverbs viii. 15. 4 St. John i. 1-2. 



80 CHRIST OUR LORD AND KING. 

the Son of Man, so that He " can be touched with 
the feeling of our infirmities," for He " was tempted 
in all points like as we are." * 

The humiliation of our Lord by His union with 
our humanity involves mysteries which it is beyond 
our power to fathom. We only know this : that 
being in the form of God, He " emptied Himself, 
taking the form of a servant, being made in the like- 
ness of men." 2 The Scriptures give no explanation 
of this mystery of the Kenosis, but they teach us that 
Jesus was truly a man ; that he had the sensibilities 
and the limitations of a man ; that He was really and 
truly tempted ; that He needed to pray ; that there 
were some things which He did not know, and some 
things which the Father had put in His own power. 3 
In the time of His humiliation He prayed to the 
Father, — " Glorify thou me with thine own self, with 
the glory which I had with thee before the world 
was." 4 They teach us to think of Him not as two 
beings, but as one being, the God-man, who in His 
complete person bore our griefs and carried our 
sorrows. 

The power of Jesus the Christ to sway the hearts 
of men is a personal power. It is that of a real man 
with a sensitive nature, and a warm human heart. 
We come very near to Him when we read the story 
of His life in the four gospels. Whoever reads these 
with an open mind will be gaining new impressions 
of the depth and tenderness of His sensibilities, as 
well as of the wisdom and strength of His plans. 

1 Hebrews iv. 15. 3 St. Matthew xxiv. 36: St. Mark xiii. 32. 

2 Philippians ii 7. 4 St. John xvii. 5. 



CHRIST OUR LORD AND KING. 8 1 

There are the elements of a great picture in the ex- 
periences of any day of His crowded life, and I do 
not know that there is one of these experiences that 
has not furnished a subject for some one of the great 
Masters. You learn what manner of Man He was 
when you recall that He took little children in His 
arms and blessed them ; 1 when you learn that He 
went to the house of the Jewish ruler whose daugh- 
ter of twelve years old had just died, and standing by 
the side of the mother and the father, He took the 
little white hand of the dead child in His own, and 
spoke the word of power that called her back to 
life. 2 It is not merely that He raised her from the 
dead, but that He did it with so much gentleness and 
tenderness, taking her hand in His own as if she were 
His own child. You gain another impression of His 
nature when you read of His meeting the funeral of 
the young man of Nain, " the only son of his mother, 
who was a widow,'' and, touching the bier that they 
might not carry him further towards the grave, He 
called him back to life, and " delivered him to his 
mother." 3 You see this man again, weeping in sym- 
pathy at the grave in Bethany, so that those who stood 
by said, " Behold how He loved Him," and then, 
calling Lazarus also from the tomb, and sending him 
back to his own home with his sisters whose faith 
had not failed in the supreme hour. 4 

In such ways as these, though we have not seen 
our Lord we have learned to think of His life as full 
of gentleness and sympathy, beautiful as the life of 

1 St. Mark x. 16. 3 St. Luke vii. 14. 

2 St. Luke viii. 54. 4 St. John xi. 34-44. 



82 CHRIST OUR LORD AND KING. 

a gracious and tender woman, strong as the life of 
a brave and heroic man, and glorious as the human 
life of the incarnate Son of God. This inner spirit 
of the Christ is finely illustrated in Raphael's paint- 
ing of the Transfiguration. You have there the form 
of the Redeemer clothed in a garment of light ; and 
His face — that wonderful face — lighted up with 
divine rapture. But in that face, which did shine 
as the sun, there is a depth of sensibility, such as 
you can find in no other, the expression of a love 
which led Him, as soon as the hour of heavenly 
communion was over, to go down from the mount 
of glory to enter again upon His work for the sinful 
and the lost. 

This unselfish love which we find in the Son of 
Man is one of the sources of His power. I do not 
know that it is possible to gain the deepest influence 
over men without possessing a generous and sensi- 
tive nature. The heart is moved only by the heart. 
You must have found illustrations of this truth in 
your study of history, and music, and art. Those 
who have done the most successful literary work, 
and especially those who have been the great lead- 
ers of men have been great hearted men, who kept 
themselves open to the fresh influences of nature, and 
who were in hearty sympathy with their fellow-men. 

You are well aware also how much the power of 
music depends upon the expression of human feel- 
ing, which makes the beautiful tones so much more 
than mere sounds. It is admitted now that music 
without words is incomplete music. When the singer 
puts his heart into the song, he takes us captive. 



CHRIST OUR LORD AND KING. 83 

We call it the power of music, but it is rather the 
power of a soul, richly gifted, pouring itself in song. 
Even the great painters owe their power quite as 
much to their sensibility as to their technical skill. 
There are thousands of pictures in the galleries of 
Europe, well drawn and richly colored, that have 
never gained the hearts of the lovers of art, because 
there is nothing in them to stir the sensibilities. 
Let two artists, of equal technical skill, paint the 
same scene in the life of our Lord, and the one who 
has himself the deepest feeling, and the fullest appre- 
ciation of His character, will be able to throw into 
his picture those delicate touches of life which appeal 
to the universal sympathies of men, and this will 
place his work far above that of his brother artist 
who has a duller sensibility. 

If these things are true with reference to such 
forms of influence as these, they must be still more 
evidently true of that spiritual influence which aims 
to change the very springs of action and the char- 
acter of the spiritual life. It is not so much the 
power and wisdom of Christ as it is the love of Christ 
that constraineth us. 1 It is impossible that our Lord 
should have set up a spiritual kingdom in such a 
world as this if He had not been first of all our 
Saviour. 

III. 

Our Lord also wears the crown of perfect righteous- 
ness. It must be so if He combines a divine nature 
with a perfect human nature. Not only is it true 

1 2 Cor. v. 14. 



84 CHRIST OUR LORD AND KING. 

that He is holy as to His own character and life, 
but His teachings lead towards righteousness always. 
He came not to destroy the law, but to fulfil it. 1 He 
set before men only one standard, and that was per- 
fect righteousness. " Ye therefore shall be perfect, as 
your Father which is in heaven is perfect." 2 He came 
to turn men from sin unto righteousness. He did not 
come to save us by breaking down the law of right- 
eousness, but by honoring that law, — shedding His 
blood for the remission of sins. He leads us from 
sin to holiness by the power of His love. The great- 
est motive to holy living which has ever been pre- 
sented to men is the love of Christ, which led Him 
to give His life for us. It is the love of Christ which 
is drawing men from selfishness and all manner of 
sin to the life of purity and love. 

IV. 

This brings us to the statement that our Lord 
jFesus wears the crown of love. He came to reveal 
the love of the Father for those who were yet sinners. 
It is a great error to teach that the government of 
God over the world is purely a government of law, — 
of law that is immutable, that leaves no place for 
prayer, and no room for divine providence. For we 
can think of a method of government that is higher 
than that. One who rules by power alone, by laws 
that are cold and pitiless, is not the perfect ruler. 
A king who loves his people, and whom they love 
with supreme devotion, is higher than one who gov- 

1 St. Matthew v. 17. 2 St. Matthew v. 48. 



CHRIST OUR LORD AND KING. 85 

erns by force. " God is love," and love is greater 
than power, and God sent His Son to manifest His 
love to men. 

If God is love, then He must needs take upon 
Himself the sorrows of men ; for does not love lead 
us to bear one another's burdens? So that we are 
to think of our divine Lord as the great Burden- 
bearer. It is His glory that He has a nature sensi- 
tive to every joy or sorrow of those whom He loves. 
So that He is able to bear our griefs and carry our 
sorrows. 

V. 

His crown is therefore the crown of mercy. His 
love extends to those who are yet sinners, and so it 
is a complete and all-embracing love. It is the high- 
est glory of our Lord that His followers have been 
redeemed with His blood; just as — to compare the 
greatest things with those that are less — it would be 
the highest glory of a human ruler that those under 
his government had been delivered from bondage, 
and enfranchised by what he had done and suffered. 
This is the profound meaning of the song of the re- 
deemed which St. John heard : " Worthy is the Lamb 
that hath been slain to receive the power, and riches, 
and wisdom, and might, and honor, and glory, and 
blessing." 1 " For thou wast slain, and didst purchase 
unto God with thy blood men of every tribe, and 
tongue, and people, and nation ; and madest them to 
be unto our God a kingdom and priests : and they 
reign upon the earth." 2 

1 Rev. v. 12. 2 Rev. v. 9-10. 



S6 CHRIST OUR LORD AND KING. 

As I studied, awhile ago, the face of Christ in Da 
Vinci's painting of the Last Supper at Milan, I 
thought I was gaining a fresh view of His glory. 
It is, I think, the saddest face I ever saw. It is the 
sadness of deep compassion. We read in the gospel 
that as they were at the table " Jesus was troubled 
in the spirit, and testified and said, Verily, verily, I 
say unto you, that one of you shall betray me." 1 
The artist has fixed upon the scene at that moment 
as the subject for his canvas. Every disciple was 
startled as by an electric shock when He said that, 
but the whole heart of the Saviour was moved, in 
view of the sin and the ruin of the disciple who had 
already sold himself to do this deed. And yet, in the 
sadness of that face, there is no suggestion of weak- 
ness. It is not the face of a conquered man. With 
the sorrow there is blended a dignity that gives in- 
finite weight to His compassion, so that you feel that 
He was consciously superior to all the circumstances 
about Him. He was bearing our sins, and the shadow 
of the cross was falling upon Him, but even then He 
was plainly the Master and Lord. 

This is our Lord and King; the Son of God, and 
yet the Son of Man, tempted as we are, yet without 
sin: eating with sinners, but " separate from sinners," 
knowing what was in man, and yet loving sinful men 
with an infinite love, and laying down His life for 
them. The disciples saw Him ascend up where He 
was before. He " sitteth on the right hand of God." 
On his head are many crowns, — the crown of divinity, 
and the crown of a complete humanity ; the crown of 

1 St. John xiii. 21. 



CHRIST OUR LORD AND KING. 87 

sympathy, and the crown of mercy. I am sure you 
have learned all this from His own words and from 
His life, and your sense of His glory must have deep- 
ened from your experiences, as you have gone to 
Him from day to day with your burdens. For He 
is wont to reveal Himself to the loving and faithful 
disciple, so that such an one may have a more per- 
fect image of his Redeemer than any artist has ever 
painted upon his canvas. 

If these things are so how loyal we should be, not 
only to His church, to His cause in the world, but to 
Him, our Lord and Master. That word loyalty 
means a great deal even when it stands for the de- 
votion of a citizen to his ruler. But it means more 
when it stands for the love and devotion of a Chris- 
tian to his Redeemer. The world has never seen 
such loyalty as that which great multitudes have 
shown to Christ. There is nothing in the annals of 
the world to equal the constancy of the Christian 
martyrs, who endured, not death alone, but those 
tortures of the rack and of the fire which have been 
permitted to test the devotion of so many of the 
servants of our King. 

If we are loyal we shall trust His words of promise. 
We shall live by faith in Him. We shall be obedient 
to His words. "Ye are my friends," He said, "if 
ye do whatsoever I command you." " If any man 
will be my disciple, let him deny himself, and take 
up the cross, and follow me." " This is my com- 
mandment, that ye love one another as I have loved 
you, that ye also love one another." 



88 CHRIST OUR LORD AND KING. 

Our loyalty should not be a constraint. It should 
be an enthusiasm. It must never count the cost. It 
gives all, or it gives nothing. It will make us as 
cheerful as we are faithful. It is the grandest enthu- 
siasm of which we are capable, — the love and devo- 
tion of a disciple to his Master and Lord. It has 
made missionaries and martyrs, and it will continue 
to make them, — not unwilling, but cheerful and ex- 
ultant missionaries and martyrs, who go to share His 
service and His cross as men go to a festival. 

The signs of the times indicate that we are on the 
eve of great events for the Church. The spirit of 
God is moving among the nations as never before. 
The Congress of Religions has disclosed to the 
people in the ends of the earth the beauty and glory 
of the one religion which is to fill the earth. There 
is a fresh awakening among Christians, especially 
young Christians. The opportunities of service are 
greater, the call is louder. Sectarian divisions are 
fading away; and the one Church of our Lord seems 
to be girding itself with strength given from above, 
to enlighten and save the world for the glory of 
Christ our Lord. 



VI. 

CHRIST THE POSITIVE TEACHER. 



VI. 

CHRIST THE POSITIVE TEACHER. 

And it came to pass, when Jesus ended these words, the 
multitudes were astonished at His teaching', for he taught 
them as one having authority, and not as their scribes. 

St. Matthew vii. 28-29. 

One who searches the four gospels carefully will 
find a few texts which suggest the outlines of a pic- 
ture of our Saviour, as He appeared to the men of 
His own time. We cannot be mistaken in the opinion 
that His aspect was kind and gracious, so that mothers 
brought their young children to Him that He would 
touch them ; the sick and the poor came to Him, 
and " the common people heard Him gladly. " * 
Those who were under the shadow of adversity 
knew, by an infallible instinct, that his heart was 
with them. We read in one place that the people 
" wondered at the words of grace that proceeded out 
of His mouth." 2 

There must have been also an impression of per- 
fect sincerity. His face inspired confidence and 
made a way for Him among strangers. There was 
also a certain dignity in His bearing and in His 
speech which commanded respect, while it prevented 
undue familiarity. His gentleness was as far as pos- 
1 St. Mark xii. 37. 2 St. Luke iv. 22. 



92 CHRIST THE POSITIVE TEACHER. 

sible from weakness. His disciples were very near 
to Him, but they never forgot that He was their 
Lord and Master. If He drew men to Himself by 
His mildness and benignity, He commanded their 
respect by His courage and boldness. " Never man 
spake like this man." 1 How wonderful it was that 
He, one man alone, was able with only a scourge of 
small cords to drive from the temple the money 
changers, — such money changers as the Jews were, 
and are to this day. How remarkable that with all 
the animosity that was kindled against Him, no man 
laid hands on Him until the last night, and then the 
rough temple guards were three times overpowered 
by His simple majesty, and only took Him when He 
delivered Himself into their hands. So gentle and 
patient He was, yet so bold and aggressive ; at once, 
the most popular man among the people, and the 
one most feared and persecuted by the rulers. He 
was the Prince of Peace, and yet He " came not to 
send peace on the earth, but a sword." 2 

In the text we have a statement of the manner of 
Christ as a teacher, which suggests more than it 
expresses. One gets a certain impression of Jesus 
as he reads carefully the Sermon on the Mount, but 
this impression becomes more distinct when we read 
directly after that "the people were astonished at 
His teaching, for He taught them as one having 
authority, and not as their scribes." We have a 
similar statement three times in the gospels, and the 
statements refer to different periods in His ministry. 3 

1 St. John vii. 46. 2 St. Matthew x. 34. 

3 St. Luke iv. 32 : St. Mark i. 22 : St. Matthew vii. 28-9. 



CHRIST THE POSITIVE TEACHER. 93 

He seems to have taught the people as one who had 
a right to set forth new truth. They were astonished 
when they saw His fearlessness, and His bold and 
original methods. He always commanded attention 
because He spoke as one who was able to impart the 
highest truths to men. 

I. 

His authority was shown, first of all, by His original 
methods of teaching. The text brings out the con- 
trast between His way and that of the scribes. The 
scribes were in bondage, not only to the Old Revela- 
tion, but to the old interpretations of the Scriptures, 
and the traditions of the fathers. So that they 
were unable to interpret the Scriptures in a free 
and spiritual manner. They did not expect that 
there was " more truth to break forth from the 
Word of God." They had no conception of the 
progress in the revelation which God had given. 
In their view everything had been finished in the 
times of the fathers. This view led them to interpret 
their Sacred books in a slavish spirit. It inclined 
them to take narrow views. They were always in- 
sisting upon " the mint, and anise, and cummin," 
while they neglected the weightier matters of the law, 
— " judgment, and mercy, and faith." 1 They under- 
stood neither the deep things of God, nor the deep- 
est wants of the soul of man. So that the result 
of the rabbinical teaching was a religion of forms 
covering much hypocrisy and wickedness. 

1 St. Matthew xxiii. 23. 



94 CHRIST THE POSITIVE TEACHER. 

The teaching of Jesus was in sharp contrast with 
that of the scribes. He spoke as one fresh from the 
sources of truth. He threw aside the bondage to 
traditions, and insisted on coming with an open mind 
and a free spirit to the very heart and core of things. 
He taught the people with confidence, as though He 
were conscious of a right to strip from religion the 
accumulations of past ages, and to lay bare the truth 
all radiant and glorious, as it came from Him who 
is the Source of light and of life. 

II. 

The authority of Christ as a Teacher was shown by 
His confidence in the truth. He spoke of the truth 
as real and eternal. It was not a speculation, but the 
expression of the reality of things, — the same for 
one man as for another,, for one time, and for all 
times. It is that which is, 

" Not of to-day, or yesterday, 
But lives forever, nor can man assign 
When first it sprang to being." x 

There is nothing of skepticism or doubt in the 
teachings of Christ. He treads upon firm ground. 
" Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words 
shall not pass away." 2 

Moreover, He showed confidence in the truth as 
adapted to the minds of men. He took it for granted 
that the common mind is able to apprehend spiritual 
truth, for He preached more frequently to the com- 

1 Antigone, quoted by Prof. Fisher in Beginnings of Christianity. 

2 St. Matthew xxiv. 35. 



CHRIST THE POSITIVE TEACHER. 95 

mon people in the villages of Galilee and of Judea 
than to the people at the centres of intelligence and 
culture. He seemed to have more confidence in the 
common mind than in the educated mind of His time. 
So He said to the Scribes : " Except ye turn, and 
become as little children, ye shall not enter into the 
Kingdom of heaven." 1 "I thank thee, O Father, 
because Thou didst hide these things from the wise 
and understanding, and didst reveal them unto 
babes." 2 

Especially did our Saviour appeal to the perma- 
nent convictions, and moral intuitions of men. He 
did not deduce the most important truths from pro- 
cesses of reasoning. He never attempted to prove 
the being of God, or the existence of the spiritual 
world. He assumed these truths as well known. 
His effort was to bring men into close personal rela- 
tions with God as His children, and to bring them 
under the influence of His holiness and love. He 
knew the power of conscience and the natural yearn- 
ings for immortality, and He sought to lay hold on 
men by means of their moral sentiments and their 
spiritual aspirations, and to bring them into fellowship 
with God. He used the truths that are well known, 
to lead to the apprehension of the truths that are 
less known. He frequently used the common rela- 
tions of men in this life to suggest something of their 
relations to God. He spoke of earthly things that 
He might help them to apprehend heavenly things. 

" What man is there of you who, if his son shall ask 
him for a loaf, will give him a stone? If ye then, being 
1 St. Matthew xviii. 3. ' 2 St. Matthew xi. 25. 



96 CHRIST THE POSITIVE TEACHER. 

evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, 
how much more shall your Father which is in heaven 
give good things to them that ask him? " l So, from 
your love for your children, learn God's readiness to 
answer the requests of His children. 

The Kingdom of heaven is as when a man " going 
into another country, called his own servants and 
delivered unto them his goods. And unto one he 
gave five talents, to another two, to another one : to 
each according to his several ability. . . . Now after 
a long time, the lord of those servants cometh and 
maketh a reckoning with them." 2 So, from these 
relations which are perfectly familiar in the business 
of men, He set forth the principles on which God 
will proceed in respect to the duties which men owe 
to Him. He appealed also to the sense of ill-desert 
that men have, and taught that He was the Saviour 
of sinners ; and that the great Father will welcome all 
such as come back to Him, even as an earthly father, 
seeing his prodigal son, when he is a great way off, 
will run and fall on his neck, and kiss him, and put on 
him the tokens of his forgiveness and his love. So 
the life here is used to suggest the life there ; earthly 
things are made to teach us heavenly things; and 
duty to men shows us our duty to God. The earthly 
home suggests the mansions in the Father's house. 

This was His manner of teaching. There is noth- 
ing in the gospels more wonderful than the confi- 
dence with which the Saviour presented the truth 
to the people. He employed no artifice. He sought 
no adventitious helps. He took no pains to solicit 

1 St. Matthew vii. 9-1 1. 2 St. Matthew xxv. 14-20. 



CHRIST THE POSITIVE TEACHER. 97 

the influence of the men of learning and eloquence. 
He selected His disciples from among the plain 
people. He did not found an Academy or write a 
book, or even organize a church. Like Socrates, 
who refused to commit his teachings to writing, say- 
ing, " I prefer to write on the hearts of living men," 
Christ trusted entirely to oral discourses. He went 
about among the people teaching the truth concern- 
ing God, and the way by which we may please Him ; 
sowing beside all waters ; teaching all sorts and con- 
ditions of men, even publicans and sinners, the pro- 
fane and the outcasts ; using the simple and homely 
methods that would convey the truth most clearly to 
the common men who resorted to Him. He forbade 
His disciples to use any other means besides the 
truth. " If my kingdom were of this world, then 
would my servants fight." 1 " Put up the sword into 
the sheath." 2 " Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor 
brass, in your purses ; nor scrip for your journey ; 
neither two coats ; neither shoes, nor yet staves." 3 
But " go ye into all the world," go fearlessly, go con- 
fidently, " and preach the gospel to every creature ; " 4 
simply preach the truth ; " and lo, I am with you 
alway, even unto the end of the world." 5 

Let me contrast this reliance upon the truth as a 
reality, with the philosophy of unbelief, which is so 
often put forth in an age of unbelief. We have 
teachers who give us " Guesses at the truth," specu- 
lations about the truth ; vague conjectures in respect 

1 St. John xviii. 36. 3 St. Matthew x. 9-10. 

2 St. John xviii. 11. 4 St. Mark xvi. 15. 

5 St. Matthew xxviii. 20. 
7 



98 CHRIST THE POSITIVE TEACHER. 

to the truth. There are some who imagine that it 
is better to be seeking the truth than to know the 
truth. It is common to quote one of the sayings of 
Lessing, that if he were offered the choice between 
the truth as a present possession and the opportunity 
to search for the truth all his life, he would choose 
the latter. But why so ? If the truth be worth seek- 
ing all one's life, why is it better to seek it than to 
have it? Why, indeed, should one seek it if it is 
better not to possess it? Why spend one's life in 
quest of that which it is better not to gain ? 

A saying of Tennyson's is often quoted as imply- 
ing that doubt, if honest, is better than faith; 

" There lives more faith in honest doubt, 
Believe me, than in half the creeds." x 

But the meaning of the poet is not that doubt is 
better than faith. He was himself possessed of a 
clear and steady faith which he prized above all 
other things. Honest doubt is better than the pre- 
tence of faith, just as anything honest is better than 
anything dishonest. But doubt, at the best, is only 
negative, — preparative — while the soul craves that 
which is positive, — that which satisfies its longings, 
— the true bread of life. Mr. Tennyson goes on to 
say of his doubter, — 

" He fought his doubts, and gathered strength, 
He would not make his judgment blind, 
He faced the spectres of the mind 
And laid them : thus he came at length 
To find a stronger faith his own." 

1 In Memoriam xcv. 



CHRIST THE POSITIVE TEACHER. 99 

Our great Teacher never mocked the expectations 
of men with vague surmises and questionings. He 
taught that over against the inquiries of earnest men 
there is a real objective truth which is the bread of 
life. " I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life," 
He said. 1 "To this end was I born, and to this end 
am I come into the world, that I should bear witness 
unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth hear- 
eth my voice." 2 He said again : " If ye abide in 
my word, ... ye shall know the truth, and the truth 
shall make you free." 3 

III. 

The authority of the great Teacher appears in His 
definite and positive statements of truth. He never 
teaches that it is of little consequence what men be- 
lieve. For our religion rests upon certain great facts, 
and it is of the first importance for us to be sure of 
these facts. 

Take as an example of His method, the teaching 
in respect to the being of God. You can give twenty 
reasons, perhaps, to prove that there is no God but 
nature. Another can give twenty reasons to prove 
that there is a living God who is the Author of nature. 
Did Christ teach in that way? Did He speculate 
upon the matter as though there were any uncer- 
tainty about His existence? Instead of that, Jesus 
said: "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father; 
how sayest thou, show us the Father? " 4 "I and the 

1 St. John xiv. 6. 3 St. John viii. 31-32. 

2 St. John xviii. 37-38. 4 St. John xiv. 9. 



100 CHRIST THE POSITIVE TEACHER. 

Father are one." a " God is a spirit, and they that 
worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." 2 
" God is not the God of the dead, but of the living." 3 
Above all, did He illuminate the truth concerning 
God when He said : " For God so loved the world 
that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoso- 
ever believeth on Him should not perish but have 
eternal life." 4 That is not the manner of one who 
is finding his way to the truth step by step, but 
of one who knows. Whoever will receive His tes- 
timony will have no doubt that there is one God, 
spiritual, good, and true, and that He loves the 
world. 

If a man die shall he live again? Who can tell 
us ? We have had no experience of death or of what 
lies beyond. Human reason gives no certain answer. 
Some wise men have found it hard to believe in 
immortality. But Jesus answered the question not 
only by His words, but by His sublime act. He 
said, " He that believeth on me, though He die, yet 
shall he live ; and whosoever liveth and believeth on 
me, shall never die." 5 He told His disciples that He 
should rise again ; and on the third day He did come 
forth from the tomb, and showed Himself alive unto 
His disciples " by many infallible proofs, being seen 
of them forty days." 

Can God forgive sin? Some say yes; others say 
no. I do not think any one can find out by his own 
inquiries. I can give as many reasons why a holy 

1 St. John x. 30. 3 St. Matthew xxii. 32. 

2 St. John iv. 24. 4 St. John iii. 16. 

5 St. John xi. 25-26. 



CHRIST THE POSITIVE TEACHER. IOI 

God should not forgive sin, as another can give to 
show that He can do so. But the Master did not 
give any reasons. He did not discuss the question. 
He settled it by saying to a man : " Thy sins are 
forgiven ; " 1 and then He wrought a miracle to 
show that He had power on earth to forgive sins. 
The thing was done, and there was an end of ques- 
tioning, if you will receive His testimony. And since 
God can forgive sin, He made it the great purpose 
of His teaching to induce men to come to Him with 
their burdens and their guilt, and obtain a free remis- 
sion for His sake. 

There is a great practical question as to prayer. 
Some inquire whether it is of any use for men to 
pray. Does God hear our prayers? Can we expect 
that God will interfere in any case with natural proc- 
esses in answer to the prayers of His children? 2 It is 
very common, at this time, to say that the only bene- 
fit of prayer is its reflex influence upon the person 
who prays. But the great Teacher expressed no 
doubt in respect to prayer. He lived a life of prayer. 
He taught His disciples to pray. He said : " There- 
fore I say unto you, All things whatsoever ye pray 
and ask for, believe that ye have received them, and 
ye shall have them." 3 "Ask, and ye shall receive; 
seek, and ye shall find ; knock, and it shall be opened 
unto you." 4 He also said : " If ye abide in me, and 
my words abide in you, ask whatsoever ye will and 
it shall be done unto you." 5 There is no longer any 

1 St. Mark ii. 5. 3 St. Mark xi. 24. 

2 See The Forum, May, 1897, 351. * St. Matthew vii. 7. 

5 John xv. 7. 



102 CHRIST THE POSITIVE TEACHER. 

question in regard to the efficacy of prayer, for those 
who receive the teachings of Christ. 

Another question relates to the dealings of God with 
men in the future life. Will He punish those who 
refuse the offers of His grace, and die without repent- 
ance? Christ did not discuss this question, as though 
He needed to find His way to the truth; but an- 
nounced the solemn fact, " Whosoever speaketh a 
word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven 
him : but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, 
it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, 
neither in the world to come." 1 There is then 
a sin unto death. In summing up the results of the 
final judgment, our Lord said : " These shall go away 
into eternal punishment ; but the righteous into eter- 
nal life." 2 

There is no need to multiply illustrations of this 
positive method of the great Teacher. They lie on 
the surface of the four Gospels, and he who runs may 
read them. He shows unlimited confidence in the 
truth, and in Himself as the Divine Teacher of men. 
Observe the perfect independence of this Teacher. 
He stands alone on a height unapproachable, — the 
most solitary of beings ; the one infallible Teacher 
of Divine things. The wise men of the nation dis- 
sent from Him, but His confidence does not waver. 
The nation turns against Him, but He does not hesi- 
tate. His disciples forsake Him, but in the supreme 
hour He says: " Every one that is of the truth 
heareth my voice." 3 

1 St. Matthew xii. 32. 8 St. John xviii. 37. 

2 St. Matthew xxv. 46. 



CHRIST THE POSITIVE TEACHER. 103 



IV. 

The authority of Christ also appears in the claim 
which He constantly made that men should obey the 
truth which He was giving them. The truth, in His 
use of it was intensely practical. It was such that 
the knowledge of the truth placed men under obliga- 
tion to follow it. "Whosoever heareth these say- 
ings of mine and doeth them, is like unto a wise man, 
who built his house upon a rock ; " and whosoever 
" heareth these words of mine and doeth them not, 
shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his 
house upon the sand." * The truths He teaches are 
vital. " The words that I speak unto you, they are 
spirit, and they are life." 2 

There are many things that are true that have no 
relation to character. It does not make one a better 
man to know that two and two are four, or to compre- 
hend the demonstrations of Euclid, or the correlation 
of forces. But it does tend to make us more serious 
to know that we are immortal. It gives us hope and 
courage to learn that God loves us. It strengthens 
every moral feeling to know that we are responsible 
to God. Our whole life will be elevated if we come 
under the influence of the pure and blessed life of 
Jesus, who has redeemed us. 

The great Teacher presents these truths as the means 
for our salvation. He would save us through the 
truth, — truth which consists of certain simple state- 
ments of fact, which we receive on His authority, 
1 St. Matthew vii. 24-26. 2 St. John vi. 63. 



104 CHRIST THE POSITIVE TEACHER. 

but which we find to correspond with the suggestions 
of our own spiritual nature. These truths are of 
such a kind that if we yield ourselves to their direc- 
tion they will guide us to a spiritual life with God. 

He claims a complete obedience. He will not accept 
a divided service. " Ye cannot serve God and mam- 
mon." 1 He requires us to forsake all and follow 
Him, even though we may have to bear the cross. 
" He that loveth father and mother more than me 
cannot be my disciple." " For whosoever would 
save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose 
his life for my sake, shall find it." 2 

This statement of the manner of our Lord's teach- 
ing shows us the inner spirit of our religion. It is the 
most positive of religions. It meets us with a state- 
ment of the great facts concerning God and man, 
redemption and salvation, and it calls for our obedi- 
ence. It does not permit us to linger in the border- 
land of doubt. It does not allow us time for the 
luxury of unbelief. It blames us if we " halt between 
two opinions." It presses us through our consciences 
and our affections. It sets before us our sin and 
guilt, and it appeals to our sense of duty, and to our 
desire for peace and blessedness in the life to come. 
It teaches us that "in none other is there salvation: 
for neither is there any other name under heaven, that 
is given among men, wherein we must be saved." 3 

A religion must be positive that is to give peace 
to the human soul. We find ourselves in existence, 
but we cannot tell of ourselves whence we came, or 

1 St. Matthew vi. 24. 2 St. Matthew xvi. 25. 3 Acts iv. 12. 



CHRIST THE POSITIVE TEACHER. 105 

whither we are going. We stand at the open grave, 
and we know that we are soon to die ; and we inquire 
what there is for us after death. We know that we 
are sinful, and we fear to meet God ; and we long to 
know how we can make our peace with Him. We 
must have a direct and positive answer to out in- 
quiries. A religion of surmises and uncertainties 
would only mock us. 

It is our mission, as true disciples and followers of 
the Lord Jesus, to bear our testimony to the reality 
and power of this religion. We are witnesses for 
Christ. We cannot bear any valuable testimony un- 
less we have the evidence of a personal experience. 
Our influence in leading men to Christ will depend 
on the evidence we can give them of the reality of 
this religion. We should be able to speak with the 
authority of deep spiritual convictions, clear as the 
the light of morning, positive as the very words of 
Christ. Whenever the Church has been able to bear 
this positive testimony, there have been great multi- 
tudes of men ready to believe unto salvation. 



VII. 
ETERNAL LIFE, THE GIFT OF CHRIST. 



VII. 

ETERNAL LIFE, THE GIFT OF CHRIST. 

My sheep hear my voice, a?id I know them, a?id they follow 
me: and I give u?ito them eternal life. 

St. John x. 27-8. 

We read very often in the New Testament of " eter- 
nal life." The phrase is especially frequent in the 
Gospel of St. John, and in his Epistles. It seems to 
have been a favorite term with him ; and, what is 
especially noteworthy, when John uses the term, he 
is generally quoting the words of Christ. It was a 
favorite term with Him. Another thing to be ob- 
served about the term eternal life is this : that our 
Lord seems to have used it to express the one leading 
purpose of His mission to this world. He had come 
among men not as a philosopher, or as a teacher of 
science, or of politics, or of a new civilization, but to 
impart to men that which He is continually calling 
eternal life. Thus we read, in the 3d chapter of 
John, " God so loved the world, that He gave His 
only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him 
should not perish, but have eternal life." 1 We read 
in another passage, that the Son of man was to be 
lifted up from the earth, that " whosoever believeth, 
may in Him have eternal life." 2 Putting these texts 
together, the teaching is very significant. God's love 

1 St. John iii. 16. 2 St. John iii. 15. 



IIO ETERNAL LIFE, THE GIFT OF CHRIST. 

for the world has this for its final purpose, that lost 
men may have eternal life ; and the death of our 
Saviour on the cross was to secure eternal life for those 
who believe. This purpose of His redemptive work is 
kept always in the foreground. He is the Lord of life. 
In Him was life in very deed. So that He was able to 
give eternal life to men. He left His seat of glory, 
and became incarnate in order to be able to offer this 
life to men. He would not shun the cross. He drank 
the cup of sorrow, in order that He might give eternal 
life to as many as should believe on Him. 

Let us consider this special gift of eternal life. 

I. 

First, what is eternal life? 

The word eternal stands for that which is endless, 
if any word does. It is the word used to set forth 
the duration of the being of God, as well as that of 
the soul of man. 

The word life is used in the Bible as the opposite of 
death. God said to Adam, " in the day that thou eat- 
est thereof thou shalt surely die." 2 Death was to be 
the punishment of his disobedience. The threatening 
was fulfilled in the moral and spiritual death of our 
first parents, — perhaps also in their physical death. 
In the New Testament we read that " through one man 
sin entered into the world, and death through sin." 2 
We read in various places that men, in their natural 
state, are " dead " in trespasses and sins. That is the 
way in which the New Testament speaks of our condi- 

1 Gen. ii. 17. 2 Rom. v. 12. 



ETERNAL LIFE, THE GIFT OF CHRIST. Ill 

tion by nature. We are said to be dead in sin. So that 
the life which Christ came to give us, is the opposite 
of this spiritual death. He came among men to give 
a new spiritual life to as many as should believe on 
Him. '•' And you did He quicken," that is, make 
alive, " when ye were dead through your trespasses 
and sins, wherein aforetime ye walked, according to 
the course of this world." 1 This new life is called 
eternal, to indicate its duration. 

It follows that the term eternal life does not, by 
any means, signify the same thing as immortality. 
The Bible teaches very clearly that all men are im- 
mortal. Immortality seems to have been a part of the 
image of God which was given to man at his creation. 
The common and instinctive beliefs of men have 
included the assurance of immortality. Pagan litera- 
ture, as well as Christian, is full of the hope and 
assurance of immortality. Our Saviour speaks as con- 
fidently of the continued existence of wicked men, 
beyond this life, as He does of the continued existence 
of good men. So that, it is plain He did not come to 
the world to give immortality to men, but to give that 
which would make immortality an infinite blessing. 
All men are, by nature, immortal, but these same 
men need that eternal life which our Saviour came 
to impart. " My sheep," He says, " hear My voice, 
and they follow Me, and I give unto them eternal life." 
We read in the Epistle of John, " No murderer hath 
eternal life abiding in him." 2 But every murderer 
has an immortal soul abiding in him. We are all 
immortal, but we all need this gift of eternal life. 

1 Ephesians ii. 1-2. 2 1 John iii. 15. 



112 ETERNAL LIFE, THE GIFT OF CHRIST. 

This gift is not the mere prolongation of our pres- 
ent existence. That would not be a true salvation. 
To live forever, as we are now, — with our weaknesses, 
our infirmities of temper, our narrow views and sym- 
pathies, our evil habits of thought and feeling, our 
jealousies and ambitions, disappointments and failures, 
with a sense of sin and of guilt, — an immortality such 
as this would not be the eternal life which our Saviour 
came to give to those who follow Him. 

Eternal life is His special gift. It is added to the 
old life. It is the result of a special divine work in 
the soul, which makes one a child of God. It is not 
developed from the old life. It is a new life, which 
makes one a new man in Christ Jesus. Our Saviour 
said : " I give unto them eternal life." And again 
He said, " Whosoever drinketh of the water that I 
shall give him, shall never thirst; but the water that 
I shall give him shall become in him a well of water 
springing up unto eternal life." 1 

II. 

How do we secure this gift of eternal life ? 

It comes to us by faith, for we read : " For this is 
the will of my Father, that every One that beholdeth 
the Son, and believeth on Him, should have eternal 
life." 2 This " believing on Him," is much more than 
the assent to a creed. It is the religion of the heart, 
not that of the head, which brings us eternal life. 
" My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and 
they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life." It 

1 St. John iv. 14. 2 St. John vi. 40. 



ETERNAL LIFE, THE GIFT OF CHRIST. 113 

is that belief in Christ which includes a loving trust 
in Him, and which brings us unto personal union with 
Him, so that we follow him : it is this which brings to 
us eternal life. 

There is a reason why we receive the gift of eternal 
life through believing. It is not possible to receive it 
otherwise. For it is by believing in Christ that we 
come into sympathy with Him, and with the spirit of 
His life. We do not gain the best influences even 
from a human teacher and guide, unless we first believe 
in him, and give ourselves up to his guidance. It is 
through a complete sympathy between him and us 
that our nature is opened to the best things he has to 
impart. Even so, when we open our hearts to the 
influence of the Redeemer, and enter into the spirit of 
His life, and become His followers, we are prepared 
to receive the gift of eternal life. " We love, because 
He first loved us." 1 " He that loveth not, knoweth 
not God, for God is love." 2 When we have eternal 
life, we are brought into such intimate relations with 
Him, that we know Him, and our " fellowship is with 
the Father, and with his son Jesus Christ." 3 It is only 
as our hearts are given to Him that we can possibly 
enter into this intimate communion with Him. 

III. 

What are the signs a,nd proof s that one has the gift of 
eternal life? 

" The witness is this," says the apostle John, " that 
God gave unto us eternal life, and this life is in his 

1 1 John iv. 19. 2 1 John iv. 8. 3 1 John i. 3. 

8 



114 ETERNAL LIFE, THE GIFT OF CHRTST. 

Son. He that hath the Son, hath the life ; he that hath 
not the Son of God, hath not the life." 3 If then we 
are united with Christ by a living faith, we may be 
sure that we have eternal life. So we read in the 
next verse : — " These things have I written unto you, 
that ye may know that ye have eternal life; even 
unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God." 
This is the inner light, and token that we have eternal 
life, — that we believe on the Son. 

There are other tokens. " We know that we have 
passed out of death into life, because we love the 
brethren." 2 This is a test which we can easily apply 
to ourselves. So there is the broader test : " By their 
fruits ye shall know them." 3 Or we have this : " He 
that soweth unto his own flesh, shall of the flesh reap 
corruption, but he that soweth unto the Spirit, shall 
of the Spirit reap eternal life." 4 Best of all tests is 
this, which our Lord has given us : — " Verily, verily, 
I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believ- 
eth Him that sent me, hath eternal life, and cometh 
not into judgment but hath passed out of death into 
life." 5 

IV. 

We come next to the question : — As to the begin- 
ning of eternal life; when do we have it? Is it ours 
at the present time, or is it reserved for the life to 
come? 

It is natural to think of our life in this world as 
separated very far from the life hereafter. The classic 

1 i John v. 11-12. 3 Mat. vii. 16. 

2 i John iii. 14. * Gal. vi. 8. 

5 St. John v. 24. 



ETERNAL LIFE, THE GIFT OF CHRIST. 115 

religions taught that the home of departed souls was 
far away : in some place difficult of access ; — under 
the world, or on some mountain summit, or some 
island in remote seas, or on some planet or star. The 
pagan religions of modern times have held to this 
notion of the ancients of a complete separation be- 
tween life in this world, and the life beyond, and of 
a distant and almost inaccessible Heaven. 

But this was not the tendency of the teaching of 
Christ. As He brought God nearer to men, as an 
object of personal love and of trust, so He brought 
the other world near to men. It is the " Father's 
house." The angels are interested in our lives, and 
they rejoice when we come to repentance. The law 
of sympathy is the law of the universe and we are one 
family, in earth and heaven. He " brought life and 
immortality to light in the gospel." 1 He brings the 
life here into close connection with the life there. He 
had Himself just come out of the spiritual world. He 
was among men as one who had grown familiar with 
that world, and who was able to unfold its mysteries. 

He spoke of the gift of eternal life as a present gift. 
" My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and 
they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life." It 
is not, I will give eternal life : but now, while they are 
following me, I give unto them eternal life. He said 
also, " he that believeth hath eternal life." He has 
already received it when he believes. " He that eateth 
my flesh, and drinketh my blood hath eternal life." 2 
To eat the flesh, and drink the blood of the Son of 
man is evidently an expression to be understood not 

1 2 Tim. i. 10. 2 St. John vi. 54. 



Il6 ETERNAL LIFE, THE GIFT OF CHRIST. 

in a literal, but in a figurative sense, and it denotes a 
reception by faith of the Crucified One, whose body 
was broken for us, and whose blood was shed for the 
remission of our sins. So that the words teach us in 
another form that those have eternal life, who truly 
receive the Saviour who has borne our sins in His 
own body. 

I find the same meaning in the other passages that 
have been quoted. " No murderer hath eternal life 
abiding in him." It is not, no murderer shall inherit 
eternal life, but no murderer hath this life at the time 
when he is a murderer. But " he that heareth my 
word, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath eter- 
nal life." In quite another form our Saviour said 
to the woman of Samaria, " Whosoever drinketh of 
the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, 
but the water that I shall give him shall become 
in him a well of water springing up unto eternal 
life." 1 

Without quoting the other texts which confirm this 
teaching, these are enough to show that eternal life 
is the present possession of the true believer. Too 
long we have thought of it as future, — a gift to be 
imparted after we leave this world. But in fact, 
we have eternal life abiding in us now, if we are 
true believers and followers of Christ. " Beloved, 
now are we children of God, and it is not yet made 
manifest what we shall be. We know that if He 
shall be manifested we shall be like Him; for we 
shall see Him even as He is." 2 We are the sons of 
God not in that general sense in which all men whom 

1 St. John iv. 14. 2 1 John iii. 2. 



ETERNAL LIFE, THE GIFT OF CHRIST. 117 

He has created are sometimes said to be His sons, 
but in that special and profound sense in which those 
who have been renewed by the Spirit are the sons of 
God. " There is therefore now no condemnation to 
them that are in Christ Jesus." 1 Our names are 
already in the book of life ; our treasures are " laid 
up in heaven ; " " we have now the spirit of adoption 
whereby we cry Abba, Father;" 2 "we have the 
Spirit witnessing with our spirits that we are born of 
God," so that we live " as seeing Him who is invis- 
ible," and w r e are running our race " looking unto 
Jesus the Author and Perfecter of our faith." 3 

V. 

If, then, we have eternal life abiding in us, what is 
the relation of our life in this world to the life beyond ? 

It will not answer to say that there is no difference 
between the present and the future. Our Saviour 
always spoke of the other life as a great advance 
upon the present. He did not seek to break down 
the separating wall between the life here and the life 
there. He brings Heaven very near, but never so 
near as to make it common. He never lays aside 
the reserve which the writers of the Bible always use 
when they speak of Heaven. He said to His dis- 
ciple, " Whither I go thou canst not follow me 
now." 4 There must be a time of patient waiting for 
the promised inheritance. When He ascended to 
Heaven, "a cloud received Him out of the sight" 5 of 

1 Rom. viii. 1. 3 Heb. xii. 2. 

2 Rom. viii. 15. 4 St. John xiii. 36. 

6 Acts i. 9. 



Il8 ETERNAL LIFE, THE GIFT OF CHRIST. 

His disciples. It is not the will of God that we 
should look beyond that cloud, so long as we are in 
the flesh. If we knew too much of Heaven we 
should be unfitted for our duties here. The Apostle 
Paul had been caught up into the third heaven, 
which he calls " Paradise," and he was in a strait be- 
twixt the two, having the desire to depart even from 
the abundant labors of the Apostolic church, that he 
11 might be with Christ." * We have none of us been 
caught up into Paradise, but it is our privilege to 
have spiritual experiences such that we can know 
something of the blessedness of the redeemed. Presi- 
dent Edwards recorded in his journal that he had 
often enjoyed such intimate communion with God 
that he could not conceive of anything higher even 
among the saints in Heaven. 2 I am quite sure that 
it is the privilege of those who share the gift of eter- 
nal life, to live so near to the spiritual world that it 
will cease to seem strange or unfamiliar to them. It 
is- not far away, but near at hand. 

It was this assurance of eternal life as a present 
possession, which gave to the martyrs their cheerful 
constancy in the presence of death. It was this as- 
surance which led the primitive Christians to call 
their places of burial " Cemeteries," that is, " Cham- 
bers of rest." One is impressed in going through 
the Catacombs at Rome with the emblems which are 
carved upon the doors of the tombs. They are em- 
blems of immortality; suggestions of confident faith 
in the love and grace of the Good Shepherd. The 

i Phil. i. 23. 

2 Life of Edwards in his works. His private journal. 



ETERNAL LIFE, THE GIFT OF CHRIST. 119 

hymns which those Christians sang, their prayers, 
and the early homilies express the same faith. 

There is a striking inquiry recently published of a 
great Englishman, who said, in the near view of death, 
" When my Father opens the door, and wants Henry 
Edward Manning within, shall not the child be wait- 
ing on the step ? " 2 

You recollect that poem of Mr. Tennyson entitled, 
" Crossing the Bar : " — 

" May there be no sadness of farewell 
When I embark; 
For tho', from out our bourne of time and place 

The flood may bear me far, 
I hope to see my Pilot face to face 
When I have cros'd the bar." 

We have also a later expression from the same 
poet in the lines " On the Death of the Duke of 
Clarence," addressed to the royal mourners : — 

" The bridal garland falls upon the bier, 
The shadow of a crown that o'er him hung 
Has vanished in the shadow cast by death. 
. . . Yet be comforted, 
For if this earth be ruled by perfect Love, 
Then after his brief range of blameless days, 
The toll of funeral in an angel ear 
Sounds happier than the merriest Marriage bell. 
The face of Death is toward the sun of Life, 
His shadow darkens earth ; his truer name 
Is onward. No discordance in the roll 
And march of that eternal harmony 
Whereto the worlds beat time, tho' faintly heard, 
Until the great Hereafter ; mourn in hope." 2 

1 Contemporary Review, February, 1892, 191. 

2 Poems of Tennyson. Latest volume. 



120 ETERNAL LIFE, THE GIFT OF CHRIST. 

I do not know whether it is common in our time 
for Christians to cherish such views as these of the 
reality and the nearness of the spiritual world. Life 
in this world is pleasanter than it was in the ages of 
persecution. The interests of life are more numer- 
ous, life itself is more intense, and it may be that 
eternal things do not come so near to our minds, do 
not kindle the imagination as they used to. But 
for all that, the great realities of spiritual religion are 
our only enduring hope and inspiration. There they 
stand, obscured, it may be, by the mists of an Age 
of Doubt, but still the transcendent realities. Our 
life here takes hold upon the life to come. We 
already have eternal life abiding in us if we are truly 
in Christ. This is only the season of preparation, — 
the time for the unfolding of spiritual powers, the 
time of waiting. But that is the time of permanent 
joy and blessedness. That is the world's great hope. 
We attain the best things which God has for us by 
the simple following of Christ. " My sheep hear my 
voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I 
give unto them eternal life, and they shall never 
perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. 
My Father, which hath given them unto me, is greater 
than all ; and no one is able to snatch them out of 
the Father's hand." 



VIII. 

CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 



VIII. 

CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 

God is a Spirit, and they that worship him, must worship 
in spirit and truth. St. John iv. 24. 

If God is a Spirit, He is an intelligent Being. He 
can think, and feel, and act. He can be pleased or 
displeased. He can grant a request, or refuse to grant 
it. A spirit is not a mere force, or law. A spirit is a 
life. A spirit has a will, a heart, a conscience. A 
spirit is in the fullest sense, a person. We speak of 
the spirit, in distinction from the body. When we 
say that God is a Spirit, we mean that He is free from 
the bondage to matter. 

Our Saviour tells us that God is a Spirit, in order 
to teach us how to worship Him. If He is a Spirit, 
He can understand our prayers, and our praises, and 
can accept our homage. He knows whether we wor- 
ship Him in sincerity. Mere forms and pretences of 
worship do not please Him. If God is a Spirit, then 
" they that worship Him, must worship in spirit and 
truth." 

I. 

What then is true worship? 

It is the homage which the lower pays to the higher. 
It springs partly from a sense of dependence. It is 
the effort of weakness to lay hold upon strength. It 



124 CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 

is an instinctive movement of the human towards the 
divine. I have never found any evidence that worship 
was ever learned. It has always gone up from man 
to God. 

Worship is aspiration. What we become will de- 
pend upon our aspirations. If we climb towards that 
which is only a little higher than we are, we shall not 
rise far above the earth. Those who make pleasure, 
or riches, or honor the chief objects of life, cannot 
expect to become large, and generous, and spiritual. 
If we have no God but nature, — the forces and laws 
which science enables us to study, — if we cannot 
look beyond the rising and the setting of suns, and the 
fixed laws of the natural world, — then we can never 
mount towards the realm of the spiritual. Why then 
should we limit our aspirations? We start with a 
little knowledge : — let us seek for more. We know 
something of the beings who are near us : — shall we 
not extend our acquaintance to include those who are 
further away? Shall we not seek to know God, that 
we may become like Him? 

True worship is the expression of our thoughts, and 
emotions towards God. There must be thought. There 
must be emotion. There must be expression. It may 
be in words. It may be in music. It may be by a 
look or a gesture. The dumb can worship God. The 
prisoner in his chains can worship. The little child 
can worship. The angels always worship. Worship 
is a natural duty, for God is our Maker, and He is 
infinite in His perfections. It is our highest privilege. 
It is the means by which we become partakers of the 
Divine nature. It does more than knowledge, or cul- 



CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 1 25 

ture, or society to lift us above that which is sordid 
and mean. It makes us familiar with the highest 
truths. So that worship rests us after the labors of 
the week, by bringing us into a new range of thought 
and of feeling. 

Worship should be humble and reverent. " The 
Lord is in His holy temple, let all the earth keep 
silence before Him." 1 Worship must be sincere. We 
should not be like those who " draw nigh unto God 
with the mouth, and honor Him with the lips, while 
the heart is far from Him." We should be solicitous 
about the way in which we come to worship. " Let the 
words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart be 
acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my rock and my 
Redeemer." 2 We should come with penitence for 
our sins, for " the Lord is nigh unto them that are 
of a broken heart, and saveth such as be of a con- 
trite spirit." 3 

True worship will also be intelligent. Ignorance is 
not the mother of devotion. " Ye worship, ye know 
not what," said our Lord ; " Whom therefore ye igno- 
rantly worship," said St. Paul to the Athenians, " Him 
declare we unto you." 4 God has revealed Himself in 
the life and teachings of His Son, and so we may 
know what we worship. The more we know of God, 
the better we shall be prepared to worship Him in 
spirit and truth. Worship is an intense personal act 
The whole soul goes out to God in petition, and in 
adoration, and praise. 

1 Hab. ii. 20. 8 Ps. xxxiv. 18. 

2 Ps. xix. 14. 4 Acts xvii. 23. 



126 CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 



II. 



What are some of the reasons why we should wor- 
ship God ? 

Because our deepest moral instincts point us towards 
worship. We cannot go so far back in the history of 
mankind as to trace the beginnings of worship. As far 
as we can find any written records worship has had a 
large place in the life of man. If we grope our way 
beyond the earliest writings, and beyond the traditions 
that live in the earliest poetry, we shall find monu- 
ments that are connected with worship. It is impossi- 
ble to tell when men began to worship. So far as we 
can learn, the practice of some form of worship has 
come down from primitive times, as one of the things 
which the voice of God in the soul has taught to men 
of every race, in every quarter of the world. 

Turning next to the Bible, we find that men wor- 
shipped God when the world was new. We are not 
told that they were taught to worship any more than 
that they were taught to eat, or to sleep. We find Abel 
presenting an oblation of the firstlings of his flock. 
Noah offered a sacrifice when he took possession of 
the desolated earth. Abraham built altars and offered 
sacrifices when he came into the land of promise. So 
did all the patriarchs. Moses, at the burning bush, 
put his shoes from his feet, in token of reverence for 
God. When he made known the words the Lord 
had spoken unto the people, " they bowed their 
heads and worshipped." 1 

1 Exodus iv. 31. 



CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 127 

God taught his people how to worship. He ap- 
pointed the times, and the ways of presenting their 
prayers and sacrifices, and their gifts of treasure. 
The Psalms were written to express the praises and 
the confessions of the devout Jews. The temple at 
Jerusalem was a place of worship, and the people of 
God were to turn towards it when they prayed. When 
the Jews returned from the captivity, they rebuilt the 
temple in Jerusalem, and they built synagogues in all 
parts of their country, as places for the regular wor- 
ship of God by prayers and praises, and the reading 
of the Holy Scriptures. In the time of Christ these 
synagogues were open every Sabbath day for wor- 
ship. There our Saviour was accustomed to worship 
while He dwelt at Nazareth, and during His public 
ministry, wherever He was when the Sabbath over- 
took Him. 

It is very instructive that Jesus went every year to 
the temple in Jerusalem, at the time of the Passover, 
leaving for this purpose His work of teaching and of 
healing, — going the long journeys on foot with His 
disciples, that he might worship in the house of His 
Father. On two occasions He drove out those that 
bought and sold in the temple, saying, " It is written, 
my house shall be called a house of prayer, but ye 
have made it a den of robbers." 1 

The Apostles also worshipped in the temple and in 
the synagogues. Paul said in one place, " I went up 
to Jerusalem for to worship." 2 He had left his work 
among the churches of Macedonia, where he was 
greatly needed, and had taken a journey of many 

1 St. Matthew xxi. 13. 2 Acts xxiv. 11. 



128 CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 

hundred miles that he might be at Jerusalem on the 
day of Pentecost. Peter and John went up to the 
temple at the hour of prayer. The early disciples 
preferred to worship in consecrated places, in the 
temple or in the synagogues. But the worship was 
much more to them than the place. When they were 
shut out from consecrated places they used to wor- 
ship in private houses ; and when these were unsafe 
they went to the wilderness, to the caves, to the cata- 
combs, — to any place where a company of believers 
could be gathered. Their worship was very simple 
The purpose was always to come into communion 
with God. They read His word together. They sang 
psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. They united 
in prayers. They made offerings for the poor saints 
on the Lord's day. They united on the First day of 
the week in celebrating the Lord's Supper. Some of 
the words they used have been preserved. Very 
early they began to use the Magnificat : " My soul 
doth magnify the Lord;" 1 and the Benedictus: 
" Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He hath 
visited and redeemed His people." 2 The Gloria in 
Excelsis, which we can trace almost to the first cen- 
tury, the Gloria Patri, of the fourth century, and 
later, the Dies Irae, and the hymns of St. Bernard, — 
all these show how the religious emotions of devout 
Christians have gone forth in song. Some of the 
prayers of the early church are preserved in the 
ancient Liturgies. Some of the homilies of the early 
preachers are also preserved, and they are our best 
models to-day, for their simple earnestness, their 

1 Luke i. 46. 2 Luke i. 68. 



CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 1 29 

close following of the Scriptures, and their evangeli- 
cal fervor. 

When the church gained freedom from persecution, 
and increased in numbers and in wealth, the modes of 
worship became more formal and stately. The most 
beautiful and the most costly buildings in the Christian 
countries of the old world, are the old churches and 
cathedrals. The genius of the great artists was em- 
ployed in painting for these cathedrals scenes from 
the life of our Lord, and from the Old Testament. 
Whenever the spiritual life of the church has declined 
the worship has become formal ; but the revival of 
the religious life has always been shown in the revival 
of true worship : — in the return to simple and earnest 
prayer, — the singing of hymns by the people, — the 
reading of the word of God, direct and affectionate 
preaching, — the devout and reverent use of the sac- 
raments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper. Thus 
pure religion has always led to the worship of God in 
spirit and truth. 

III. 

It remains for us to inquire : — How shall we wor- 
ship? 

Our Saviour did not give us any definite forms of 
worship, like those in the laws of Moses. He taught 
that the form is less important, and the spirit more 
important. The Jews said that " in Jerusalem is the 
place where men ought to worship." It had been so 
under the Old Testament. But Jesus said : " The 
hour cometh and now is, when the true worshippers 

9 



130 CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 

shall worship the Father in spirit and truth." Men 
are not limited to the mountain in Samaria, nor to 
Jerusalem, nor to any other place. God is a Spirit, 
and if we worship in spirit and truth, He will accept 
our worship. 

If God be present in every place, then all our life 
should be a psalm of adoration and praise. Our Lord 
said, " Enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut 
the door, pray to thy Father which is in secret, and 
thy Father which seeth in secret shall recompense 
thee." 1 The most secret place becomes the very 
gate of heaven, when a devout soul enters into com- 
munion with God, and his prayers go up, and answers 
come back, as the angels went and came on the ladder 
whose top reached unto heaven. We are taught also 
that we should worship God with our families, and I 
cannot understand how any one can neglect to render 
praise and prayer, from day to day, in his own home. 

God has also appointed public worship, and we 
have the example of our Lord, and of His Apostles 
to recommend this way of worship. I do not find 
that our Lord has appointed any special forms of 
public worship. There is absolutely no evidence, 
from the New Testament, or from Church History 
that any one method of worship is of divine appoint- 
ment. " Let all things be done decently, and in 
order," 2 certainly. Let every part of the service be for 
edification. Let the Word of God be read. Let there 
be the service of song in the house of the Lord. Let 
there be devout prayer. We can easily make out 
such points as these to guide us in our worship. But 
1 St. Matt. vi. 6. 2 i Cor. xiv. 40. 



CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 131 

we are left free in respect to the method of using them. 
When the Society of Friends meet on the First day of 
the week, in their plain and simple places of prayer, — 
like that in Amesbury, where the poet Whittier used 
to go; — when they sit in silence until the Spirit 
moves some brother or sister to repeat passages from 
the Bible ; or to speak a word of exhortation, or of 
confession, or of prayer; I have no doubt that God 
accepts their worship. That plain building is no 
longer merely a Quaker Meeting House. It becomes 
the house of God, and the very gate of heaven. 

When our brethren of the Episcopal Church, unite 
in worship, in the use of their Liturgy, rich with the 
litanies and the prayers of the ancient Churches, — 
with its regular order of lessons from the Bible, with 
its hymns, and chants ; — and when they preach the 
gospel as they are wont to preach, I am sure they 
also are accepted, and receive abundant spiritual gifts. 
And when we, the children of the Puritans, who are 
intermediate between these extremes ; — when we 
worship, after the manner of our fathers ; — in a way 
that is simple, and free, and reverent ; using hymns, 
and anthems, reading God's word, and chanting the 
old Psalms, joining in the common prayer ; adminis- 
tering the sacraments ; and magnifying the office of 
preaching the word ; we also have constant evidence 
that God accepts this way of worship. 

Let me emphasize the truth, that the controlling 
idea in all our religious services should be the idea 
of worship. We should not go to the house of God, 
as we go to a place of entertainment. Still less should 
we go for display, or for ostentation. Nor should we 



132 CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 

go chiefly for intellectual gratification. The charac- 
teristic thing is worship. We come together as a Chris- 
tian people, believing in God, and in Jesus Christ our 
Saviour ; to honor God, and learn to do His will. We 
call these places of worship Meeting-houses, according 
to the old idea, — of places where God meets with His 
people. The great Person here is, not the preacher, 
nor any one in the congregation : — it is the Infinite 
Spirit ; whom we should worship in spirit and truth. 

Not long ago, a very intelligent and cultured Roman 
Catholic woman was asked, how it was possible for 
her to go constantly to a church where the wor- 
shipers were poor people, and servants, — people 
whose social position and whose habits were so dif- 
ferent from her own. The woman replied : " I never 
think of that. I go to worship God in His house, and 
what is it to me if the Lord's poor are there also ? " It 
may be that Protestants have some lessons to learn 
from their Catholic neighbors. They go to the 
church as the house of God. They go to worship, 
and it may be that their worship is more acceptable 
to God, than that of some Protestant congregations. 
We need more than any other thing, a revival of the 
spirit of worship ; of worship like that which finds 
expression in the Psalms ; with their humble confes- 
sions of sin : their earnest petitions ; and their sincere 
offerings of praise and thanksgiving. 

First, and most important in our worship is prayer. 
We acknowledge the Father, and the Son, and the 
Spirit. We give thanks for His mercies. We confess 
our sins, and ask for pardon. We ask for protection, 
and for grace. It is in the very idea of the common 



CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 1 33 

prayer, that we all unite in the petitions. Why should 
not each one make the prayer his own, and join, 
silently, but heartily in the great petitions for pardon, 
and grace, and salvation? 

I have been deeply impressed, while attending the 
Protestant churches in Europe, with the devout 
appearance of the congregations. I used often to find 
myself in a church where a sacred stillness pervaded 
the assembly, as the minister led our devotions. 
Nearly all bowed their heads in prayer, as they took 
their places in the pews. They listened attentively, 
and they joined in singing and chanting, as though 
they desired to have a part in the worship. They 
were in no haste to leave their seats after the benedic- 
tion. It is easier to preach in England than at home, 
because English congregations are so attentive, and 
so responsive. 

Next to prayer is praise ', as a part of worship. This 
also is for the people. It is in sacred song, as in 
prayer : when we really worship, we shall seek to 
express our devotion in simple forms. The simple 
and ancient tunes which the German people sing in 
their churches are very beautiful. There is an increas- 
ing tendency, in the best churches in this country, and 
abroad, towards a style of church music that is nearer 
the wants of the people. The more of reality in the 
service of song, the less need to multiply tunes, and 
to give them a highly artistic character. I asked a 
cultivated German who had spent some years in the 
United States, why it was that so many were able to 
join in singing in the German churches. He replied, 
it is because we use the old hymns, and the old tunes, 



134 CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 

and the children are taught to sing them in the day 
schools. 

He was right. The people should be able to join 
in the service of song, as a great part of the worship 
of God. To make this a musical entertainment is to 
desecrate it. Whatever emotions are fitting in the 
service of prayer, are fitting in the service of praise. 
Congregational singing is already adopted in the best 
and most spiritual churches everywhere, for the largest 
part of the services ; and where the people enter into 
it devoutly, it becomes the most profitable part of 
public worship. The hymns we sing should be full of 
adoration and praise. Not all the hymns in our books 
are adapted to use in worship. Our hymns should 
not be limited in their range. We need hymns 
of penitence, hymns expressive of Christian love, of 
joy and praise, and adoration ; — hymns to express 
all the phases of devout emotion, and experience. 
Our hymns should be packed with spiritual truth, in 
lyrical forms. 

We can easily enrich our services by giving more 
attention to rythmical song, or the chant. This has 
been used much more than choral song in the 
churches of the ages, and the chanting of the Psalms 
by the congregation, is the natural way of using them 
in public worship. Experience has shown that chant- 
ing is within the reach of a larger number of people 
than choral tunes. The fact that many congregations 
in this country and abroad have learned to chant, 
shows that it is quite practicable. 

Reading the Scriptures is also a part of worship. 
God's word is better than the words of man, and the 



CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 135 

reading of the Bible should have a large place in our 
services. The minister should read in some regular 
order, so that in the course of time, all parts of the 
Scriptures shall be read. The Episcopal Church 
gives us an excellent example in this respect. Our 
interest in this part of the service will be increased, if 
we open our Bibles at the place of reading, and follow 
the lessons of the day. 

Preaching is also apart of worship, else it would be 
out of place in these services. If the preacher aims 
at entertainment, — or at instruction in secular matters, 
he becomes a mere lecturer, and has no place in the 
church on the Lord's day. Those are the best ser- 
mons which help the people to draw near to God, and 
send them home with a deep sense of God's presence, 
and a clear knowledge of the way of salvation, and a 
strong purpose to do His will. If one would preach 
such sermons, he may well covet the best gifts, of 
genius, of learning, of literary skill, and of eloquence. 
No other advocate pleads for so holy a cause. No 
other speakers have the opportunity to win so 
transcendent a prize. We do not worship unless 
we listen to the sermon with a serious purpose. A 
critical mood, a desire to be entertained, a super- 
cilious spirit, — these cut one off from all real bene- 
fit. The usefulness of preaching depends quite 
as much upon the hearers as upon the preacher. 
" Take heed how ye hear," said our Saviour. We 
read in one of the Epistles : — " the word did not 
profit them, not being mixed with faith in those that 
heard it." 1 

1 Heb. iv. 2. 



136 CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 

The Sacraments of Baptism, and the Lord's Supper 
are the very highest parts of worship : — the one as the 
sign and seal of our consecration to God, and of the 
consecration of our children, and the other as the 
token of our covenant with Christ, and of His cove- 
nant with us : — the new covenant in His blood, 
"shed for many, unto remission of sins." 1 

Last of all, the benevolent offerings we make are a 
part of our worship. From the time of the Apostles, 
these have had a place in the church. " Upon the 
first day of the week, let every one of you lay by as 
God hath prospered him." 2 These gifts, which cost 
us something, may be better tests of our sincerity 
than the words of prayer and praise. The Lord Jesus 
sits over against the treasury, and He measures the 
gifts by the greatness of the love which they show. 

Thus we worship God, by prayers, and hymns, 
and anthems ; by the reading of the Holy Scrip- 
tures ; by the preaching of the Gospel ; by the use of 
the Sacraments ; and by the cheerful giving of our 
substance for the Lord's poor, here, and in the ends 
of the earth. We assemble in these consecrated 
places, to meet the Lord, who knoweth our hearts, 
and to worship Him in spirit and truth. Let us not 
give the highest place to the intellectual element in 
the services ; or to the artistic element. If we do 
this, we shall watch the clouds, and the temperature. 
We shall say, have we not in our own libraries better 
sermons than our minister gives us? 

1 St. Matthew xxvi. 28. 2 I Cor. xvi. 2. 



CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 1 37 

We need, in our Congregational churches a revival 
of the spirit of worship. Every year there are 
hundreds of young people, who go from us to join 
other communions, where the element of worship has 
the leading place in the services of the church. 

We need to cultivate the spirit of reverence. We 
should come here to meet the Lord, in His own 
House, and to hear from Him out of His word. We 
should not trip lightly in, as if it were a theatre. 
We shall do well to bow our heads in prayer, as soon 
as we come to our pews. We should attend devoutly 
upon the services of worship. When it is ended, we 
should not rush from the church as though we were 
weary of it. We should delight to worship in the 
morning, and at evening also. For these hours of 
worship, are the richest hours in our lives. " A day 
in thy courts is better than a thousand." " Prayers," 
says an old writer, " are those most gracious and 
sweet odors, those rich presents and gifts, which are 
the best means we can use for purchasing all favor at 
the hands of God." 1 

Let us then honor this place as the house of prayer. 
As we come here from week to week, let it be to 
seek the blessing of God, in His own temple. And 
when the years shall have gone by, it will be said of 
one and another, " this one was born there." 2 

1 Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity. 2 Ps. lxxxvii. 6. 



IX. 

RELATION OF RELIGION TO CULTURE. 



IX. 
RELATION OF RELIGION TO CULTURE. 

And as Paul was about to be brought into the castle, he 
saith unto the chief captain, May I say something unto thee ? 
And he said, Dost thou know Greek ? Acts xxi. 37. 

The Apostles of our Lord received two gifts on the 
day of Pentecost : the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the 
gift of tongues. If the Spirit was manifested in a 
bodily form it was not in the form of a dove, as at the 
baptism of our Lord, but as tongues of flame sitting 
upon each of them. 1 The gift of the Spirit was the 
gift of spiritual power. The tongues of flame sug- 
gested the means by which they were to reach the 
minds of men. We have been reminded quite often 
enough that our Lord selected " unlearned and igno- 
rant men " as His Apostles. But the fishermen of 
Galilee were not sent out to preach until they had 
received the best training from the Master. They 
had some means of acquiring a knowledge of letters, 
for at least Matthew, John, and Peter were able to 
write in Greek, and no one of the twelve seems to 
have been strictly illiterate. Our Lord also chose 
Saul of Tarsus, a very learned man, who could speak 
in excellent Greek, even to the fastidious Athenians, 

1 Acts ii. 3. 



142 RELATION OF RELIGION TO CULTURE. 

and He committed to this man of large gifts and 
acquirements, the leading part in the work among 
the Gentiles. 

God has used civilization and culture as means for 
advancing His kingdom from the beginning. The 
Israelites were taught to say, " A Syrian ready to per- 
ish was my father, and he went down into Egypt, and 
sojourned there, few in number . . . and the Egypt- 
ians evil entreated us, and afflicted us . . . and the Lord 
brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand." x 
But the leader, whom God sent to deliver them, 
was a man " instructed in all the wisdom of the 
Egyptians," 2 and he made use of the arts and the 
culture of Egypt, — the choicest fruits of that old 
civilization, in founding the Hebrew Commonwealth. 
When, a thousand years later, God sent the Jews into 
captivity, they were carried not to a barbarous coun- 
try, but to Babylon, the centre of a wonderful civiliza- 
tion. The prophet Daniel, their greatest man in that 
age, was taught in his youth the learning and the 
tongue of the Chaldeans, 3 so that he became the 
chief of the wise men of Babylon, and his country- 
men took back to their own land the knowledge and 
the arts of this great capital of the East. 

It is suggestive also of the relation of learning to 
religion, that when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, wise 
men from the East came to worship Him, with pres- 
ents of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 4 Religion 
comes to us from heaven, and it is not the province 
of science or culture to modify its principles or de- 

1 Deut. xxvi. 5-8. 3 Dan. i. 4. 

2 Acts vii. 22. 4 St. Matt. ii. 11. 



RELATION OF RELIGION TO CULTURE. 1 43 

termine its ends. The great Apostle did not preach 
in words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the 
Holy Ghost teacheth ; that is, he did not go to Plato 
or to Aristotle for his doctrines, but to the word of 
God. Religion is not a part of civilization. It does 
not depend upon culture. Religion is first and high- 
est, with its own supreme ends. Culture is to bring 
her gifts and her graces and offer them for the honor 
and the service of Christ. Culture is not the mistress, 
but only the handmaid of religion. The gospel, re- 
vealed from God, is conveyed to us in human words 
by the preacher. But the Church has availed herself 
of the best results of learning. The wise men of the 
East, and of the West as well, have been bringing 
the choicest products of genius, — the gifts of learn- 
ing and eloquence and art and poetry and song, to 
offer them to the Redeemer. 

Let us consider some of the ways by which civiliza- 
tion, and learning, and culture, have been of service to 
the kingdom of Christ. 

I. 

In the first place the religion of Christ has depended 
very much upon civilization and culture for its exten- 
sion in the world. The gospel has not been made 
known to men by the ministry of angels. As the 
Redeemer was Himself under the limitations of a 
human life, so He has left his church subject to many 
of the conditions of human activity. "We have this 
treasure in earthen vessels." 1 Christianity is to make 
its way partly by human means. 

1 2 Corinthians iv. 7. 



144 RELATION OF RELIGION TO CULTURE. 

One reason why the religion of Christ spread so 
rapidly is, that the Apostles were able to speak in the 
Greek language. If they had known only the He- 
brew, as Isaiah and Jeremiah did, their influence 
would hardly have gone beyond Syria. The word of 
God was written at first for the people of Israel in 
their own language. But when the time drew near 
for breaking down the wall of partition between the 
Jews and the Gentiles, God provided for the transla- 
tion of the Scriptures into the Greek tongue. The 
Septuagint version of the Bible was one of the fore- 
runners of the Redeemer. You remember that when 
the Saviour was crucified His accusation was written 
in Hebrew and Latin and Greek, 1 because those lan- 
guages were all in use in Jerusalem, and the gospel 
was to be given to the nations through all those 
tongues. But it used especially the Greek, that most 
expressive and flexible of tongues, which had be- 
come, at that time, the common language of culti- 
vated men. It contained the choicest literature which 
uninspired men have produced. It was the language 
of art, and it was to continue for centuries, the finest 
instrument of culture. 

The Apostles could speak Greek in Antioch and 
Alexandria and Athens, and even in Rome. All the 
books of the New Testament were written in Greek, 
so that whoever would become an interpreter of the 
Word, is drawn towards that language, and so brought 
under the influence of the classic models of speech. 
It is not too much to claim that He who orders all 
things in the interest of His church had been prepar- 

1 St. John xix. 20. 



RELATION OF RELIGION TO CULTURE. 145 

ing the language and literature of Greece, by the 
genius and culture of so many historians and philoso- 
phers and poets, to become a fit medium by which 
the words of the Son of man should be borne, not 
only over the earth, but down the centuries to the 
latest time. 

Another reason of the rapid spread of the Chris- 
tian religion in the early centuries was the political 
organization of the Roman empire. Our Lord came 
in the age of Augustus. The Roman power had 
welded together the principal countries of the world, 
so that the Apostles did not have to make their way 
among independent and jealous tribes. The great 
missionary journeys of St. Paul, extending over the 
provinces of western Asia, and of southern, and 
perhaps, western Europe, — journeys of many hun- 
dreds of miles, show how much the Apostles were 
assisted by the imperial rule of Rome. To borrow 
the words of a recent writer, " The world had first to 
be levelled down into one vast Empire, and the stern 
legionaries, — those massive hammers of all the 
earth, — as they paved the great highways from the 
Euphrates to the pillars of Hercules, were, though 
they knew it not, fulfilling Hebrew prophecy, — pre- 
paring the way of the Lord, making straight in the 
desert an highway for our God." 1 

So " the earth helped the woman." The Apostles 
found a thousand agencies opening the way for them. 
It was not only the Roman roads, and the approach 
towards a common language, but the communion of 
thought among the most enlightened people. The 

1 Culture and Religion. Principal Shairp, p. 42. 
10 



146 RELATION OF RELIGION TO CULTURE. 

Septuagint version of the Scriptures became one of 
the classics of Alexandria. The Apostles were able 
to quote from that version. The four Gospels made 
their way as a part of the literature of the time. 
Questions relating to the Christian faith were dis- 
cussed by literary men. St. Paul quotes the heathen 
poets, and appeals to the Roman law, and he shows 
an acquaintance with the religion of the Romans. 
The Letters of Pliny made the new faith known 
where the Apostles could not go. The influence of 
civilization tended to raise men above their old super- 
stitions, and so to prepare the way for Christianity. 
As the early Christian literature grew up, there 
were a thousand channels by which it could make 
its way among the more enlightened people of the 
empire. 

The same influences have aided the progress of 
religion in later times. The Renaissance led to the 
revival of learning, and this prepared the way for 
the Reformation. If the art of printing, and the 
increase in the number of books, gave an impulse 
to thought, and added to the number of intelligent 
people, it prepared the way for the work of Luther, 
and Calvin, and John Knox. Commerce has been a 
valuable auxiliary of Christian missions. The popu- 
lous nations of the East, which were shut out for so 
many centuries from commercial intercourse with the 
West, are now studying our systems of education, 
and government, and religion, and they are learning 
how much the Christian religion has done for the 
physical well-being of the people, and for their intel- 
ligence and morality. It is a fact of great signifl- 



RELATION OF RELIGION TO CULTURE. 1 47 

cance to the people of India and of Japan that the 
most advanced science, and the richest literature, and 
the most liberal systems of government are found 
among the nations that are Christian. It looks as 
though the indirect influence of the Christian world, 
— the light that goes out of itself into all the earth, — 
was doing more for the spread of Christianity than all 
the direct influences which the church can use. We 
are sending our missionaries into all those countries 
it is true, and they are successful beyond what we 
could reasonably expect. But it is a great advantage 
to missions among the eastern races that we can 
invite these people to be represented in the great 
expositions of the industry and art of the world : and 
that we can ask them to send delegates to the world's 
Parliament of Religions. Intelligence is rapidly dis- 
seminated even in eastern Asia. China is now send- 
ing her most intelligent and sagacious observers to 
study the civilization of Europe and America. India 
is learning, under British rule, the value of schools, 
and of an intelligent and honest administration of 
affairs. Twenty-five years ago, President Julius H. 
Seelye was invited to deliver a series of addresses on 
religious subjects to educated Hindoos in Bombay, 
just as, in more recent years, Dr. Joseph Cook, and 
Dr. John Henry Barrows, and other Christian scholars 
have been asked to address the same classes of 
people in India. The attention which these addresses 
have secured, from great numbers of the most in- 
telligent people in those great centres of influence, 
shows that the light has penetrated far beyond 
the direct influence of missionaries. Japan, also, is 



148 RELATION OF RELIGION TO CULTURE. 

awakening from the sleep of ages, and developing 
a new power, and taking a new place among the 
nations. Thus every advance in knowledge and the 
arts of life tends to the extension of the religion of 
Christ. 

II. 

In the second place, religion has depended upon 
learning and cidture for its defence. St. Paul says 
that he was " set for the defence of the gospel." * If 
God has given a written revelation to His people, He 
has left it to their fidelity and skill to preserve the 
integrity of the revelation, and to defend it from 
the attacks of skeptical philosophy. 

The manuscripts of the Bible, for example, have 
not been preserved from the errors of copyists. 
There is need of the most careful and accurate 
scholarship to secure a correct text. The translators 
of the Bible have never claimed to be guided by in- 
spiration. The gift of tongues has not been con- 
tinued since the apostolic age. The church has 
availed herself of the learning of Christian scholars in 
order that she may guard the sacred oracles from 
human corruptions. 

Learning has been of service in defending the his- 
torical basis of religion. Are the documents from 
which we learn the life and teachings of Jesus authen- 
tic? Have we the complete canon of the sacred 
books ? Have we good reason for receiving the Fourth 
Gospel? Have we a reliable history of God's revela- 

1 Phil. i. 16. 



RELATION OF RELIGION TO CULTURE. 1 49 

tion in the Old Testament? What light is the Higher 
Criticism casting upon these matters? The church 
cannot safely neglect these questions. If the divine 
Spirit, dwelling in the church, imparts spiritual life 
and power to her, the trained intellect of the church 
has its own important work to do in discriminating 
the true from the false, and in giving light to those 
who are perplexed with honest doubt. 

Christian scholars have also defended the truth 
against the attacks of men of science. There is a close 
relation between the truths which the Bible teaches 
and scientific truths. The two lines of truth must har- 
monize, because the God of nature is also the God of 
revelation. Not that the field of science covers all 
important truth. " Science has to do," says a recent 
writer, " with secondary causes. Within that sphere 
her wisdom is sufficient, but beyond that sphere she 
does not need to go." 1 

It is remarkable that man has lived so long on this 
earth without learning more of its secrets. Turning 
his attention, during this century, to natural science, 
he is surprised at the greatness of his discoveries. 
As the scientist finds fixed laws everywhere in nature, 
he is inclined to infer that the reign of law is univer- 
sal, and that there is no place for freedom and per- 
sonal responsibility. But this is, at best, only an 
hypothesis, and it relates to matters that are beyond 
the field of natural science. For although science 
is able to examine natural phenomena, and tell us 
" how the wheels go round," it has no means of find- 
ing out, by scientific investigation, what it is that 

1 Dr. Henry Van Dyke, in The Gospel for an Age of Doubt, p. 247. 



150 RELATION OF RELIGION TO CULTURE. 

makes the wheels move. It cannot tell what there 
may be behind the natural phenomena which it 
studies, which corresponds, as one has said, " to 
what there is in us, when we make and use a machine, 
or an instrument : when we plant and cultivate a gar- 
den : or when we select and train a noble race of 
animals. The real question is, whether there is a 
final cause towards which things work together, and 
a Supreme Power which guides them to that end." * 
Evolution, for example, is only a process. It cannot 
account for the origin of things. The process is not 
the same as the Creator. " The doctrine of Evolu- 
tion," says Dr. Lyman Abbott, " makes no attempt 
whatever to explain the nature or origin of life. It 
is concerned not with the origin, but with the phen- 
omena of life." 2 If there is a form of Evolution 
which is atheistic, there is also a form of theistic 
Evolution, which is as really in accord with all the 
facts of science as the other. 

The church has never declined to meet the ques- 
tions which are raised by the progress of science. 
But she has not trusted her enemies to interpret the 
facts of science, because they cannot gain a full and 
well-rounded view of truth if they study nature as 
separate from God. Such investigations have often 
failed to do justice to the facts which show that there 
is an intelligent purpose of the Creator directing the 
processes of nature. It is no wonder that a narrow 
view of the science of nature should lead to unbelief. 
It is often needful to appeal to the broader view. 

1 Van Dyke. The Gospel for an Age of Doubt, p. 249. 

2 The Evolution of Christianity, p. 5. 



RELATION OF RELIGION TO CULTURE. 151 

The study of language, and of the laws of thought, 
and of the progress of civilization, and of the history 
of opinions, is the best antidote to agnosticism and 
materialism. The Christian universities must speak 
Greek, and teach Plato, and add a metaphysical train- 
ing, to the study of the natural sciences. The true 
method is not " from nature up to nature's God," but 
from God, the Author of nature, who has revealed 
Himself in our consciences as truly as in the Bible, 
down to His works, according to the saying of Kepler, 
" I read Thy thoughts after Thee, O God." 

III. 

In the third place, religion has depended upon learn- 
ing and culture for its development. The Kingdom 
of God is as leaven. Converts from paganism to 
Christianity have still the habits and modes of thought 
of pagans, although there is the beginning of a work 
of divine grace in their souls. Heaven is hardly a 
place for barbarians. The missionary must teach 
them to clothe themselves, to erect comfortable 
dwellings, to gain knowledge, to control their pas- 
sions, and refine their feelings, and cultivate their 
tastes. For religion has to do with the whole man. 
Its final result is character, well rounded and com- 
plete, bearing in every part the image of God. It is 
a narrow culture which develops man only in his 
relations to this world. The culture which religion 
favors develops him as a spiritual being. The lower 
view makes education simply the learning how to get 
on in the world. But a culture that is truly Christian 



152 RELATION OF RELIGION TO CULTURE. 

has in view not only " the game of life," but the rela- 
tions we sustain to God, and to the life beyond the 
present. It aims to elevate the thoughts, and refine 
the feelings, and strengthen the faith, and to bring 
one into sympathy with the " First Perfect, and the 
First Fair." The purposes of a religious culture will 
be advanced by whatever is beautiful, and true, and 
good ; by all knowledge ; by music, and poetry, and 
architecture, and art. It finds expression in a true 
Christian civilization. Religion seeks to direct the 
forces of society in the best way, and to gather into 
it all those influences that ennoble the life of man. 

Some one has said that the influences that have 
moulded our civilization have come from two sources, 
Athens and Jerusalem. For all that relates to the 
intellect, to fine form and expression, we are indebted 
to the Greeks. " The first father," says Principal 
Shairp, " the Apostle of civilization, was Homer. He 
was enthroned as the king of minstrelsy, and in- 
vested with the office of forming the young mind of 
Greece to noble thoughts and bold deeds. After 
his poems were gathered and reduced to writing, it 
became the first requirement of an educated gentle- 
man to be read in Homer. In his train there fol- 
lowed Hesiod, Pindar, ^Eschylus, Sophocles. On 
poetry followed history, oratory, and philosophy. No 
one who looks back on that marvelous fertility, that 
exhaustless variety of the rarest gifts of thought, 
can doubt that this richness was given to Athens that 
she might be the intellectual mother of the world, 
that her thoughts might be a possession for all ages." 1 

1 Culture and Religion, pp. 36-40. 



RELATION OF RELIGION TO CULTURE. 1 53 

And so it has come to pass that the thoughts of those 
old Greeks have entered into the culture of all the 
nations, and that the art of those sculptors has its 
representatives in every art gallery. 

But for our religious knowledge and culture we go 
back not to Athens but to Jerusalem. We learn the 
ways of God to man not from Homer or Thucydides, 
but from Moses and Daniel and Isaiah, and from 
Him who spake as " never man spake." It is very 
plain that the churches that were gathered by the 
Apostles, within the Roman empire, and which rested 
with firm faith upon the doctrines of the New Testa- 
ment, met, on every side, the influences of this old 
culture, and drew up into themselves its best ele- 
ments. The Christian mind had to eliminate the pa- 
gan elements from literature and art, and yet there 
remained in its possession all that was finest in the 
products of genius. The best elements of ancient 
thought assimilated readily with the truths which 
Christ taught. And so the church, drawing her life 
from God, and resting upon His Word, was enriched 
and beautified by the best products of the human in- 
tellect. We can trace this influence in the early lit- 
erature of the church, — such as the homilies of 
Chrysostom, and the treatises of Origen and Augus- 
tine. We trace it also in the forms of worship, in 
the hymns and spiritual songs, in the architecture of 
church buildings, and in the increasing beauty and 
refinement of the Christian life. 

It is not possible to develop the religious life in the 
best way without taking this generous view of the 
importance of human culture. We need the " gifts 



154 RELATION OF RELIGION TO CULTURE. 

stored in Athens, and the grace that radiates from 
Jerusalem." Religion touches every human power, 
and develops the entire spiritual nature. We are to 
"add to our faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge." 1 
We ought to grow in grace, and in the graces, and to 
cultivate the " fair humanities," as well as the religious 
spirit. The church needs to put on her " beautiful 
garments," 2 as well as to put on her strength. Our 
civilization is not only a development of the principles 
of the gospel, but a powerful ally in our missionary 
work. We are to do all things wisely and decently, 
taking care not to offend the tastes of cultivated 
men. We do well to magnify the province of Chris- 
tian art, and to make our sanctuaries as attractive 
as we can. For the gospel is to win its way to the 
hearts of men, and it needs all the power there is in 
the beauty of holiness. 

The church has always appreciated this close re- 
lation between religion and culture. It has always 
been the friend of learning. The largest number 
of the great schools and universities of Europe 
and America were founded by Christian men, and 
they have been consecrated to Christ and the 
church. The highest art of modern times is Chris- 
tian art, and the finest works in literature — those 
that have had an enduring influence over men — 
have been produced by those who invoked the 
Christian muse. 

If these things are so, — if these best and noblest 
things that have grown up among men, — science, 

1 2 Peter i. 5. 2 Isaiah lii. 1. 



RELATION OF RELIGION TO CULTURE. 1 55 

literature, culture, and civilization are the auxiliaries 
of religion, it follows that religion itself is above them 
all, and the mistress of them all. If science and art 
have assisted in disseminating Christianity; if they 
have provided its strong defences against its enemies; 
if they have aided in its fullest development, then 
certainly Christianity is worthy the attention of all 
intelligent and reasonable people. 

There is no good ground for the opinion that reli- 
gion is unworthy of intelligent minds. The Lord our 
God is a God of knowledge. The life of faith and of 
devotion is the highest life. The worthiest use for 
our gifts of genius and culture is the service of God. 
All our sciences and arts, our literatures and lan- 
guages, and our civilizations are only too small an 
offering to our Father in heaven. 

The first place belongs to religion. We are to 
" seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things 
will be added unto us." For piety is not, as some say, 
a grace added to character. It is itself the root and 
germ of a good character. The religious spirit will 
find use for all our acquirements and accomplish- 
ments; but the beginning is a " life that is hid with 
Christ in God." They tell us that for the best effect 
of a painting the light should fall upon it from 
above. So he who has the true light, — the light 
that cometh down from God out of Heaven, is pre- 
pared to understand the works of God in nature, 
and to range through the fields of science, and to 
appreciate at their full value the social and politi- 
cal institutions of men. For it is true, as Milton 
has taught us, that the finest intellectual products 



156 RELATION OF RELIGION TO CULTURE. 

are gained " by devout prayer to that eternal Spirit, 
who can enrich with all utterance and knowledge, 
and who sends out His seraphim with the hallowed 
fire of His altar, to touch and purify the lips of 
whom He pleases." l 

1 Milton's Prose Works, Bohn's Edition, vol. ii. p. 481. 



X. 

THE GOSPEL OF REST. 



X. 

THE GOSPEL OF REST. 

And He left them, and went forth out of the city to 

Bethany, a?id lodged there. 

St. Matthew xxi. 17. 

Our Saviour had His Bethany, — His place of rest 
and refreshment. No other of the places to which 
He went has the same pleasant associations. Beth- 
lehem, Nazareth, Capernaum, Jerusalem, each of these 
is inseparably linked with some part of His life. In 
three of them He had, for a time, a home. But I 
think we are able to get a clearer view of Jesus as a 
Friend, in the circle of His friends, to see, what I may 
almost call the domestic side of the Son of man, in 
Bethany than in any other place. 

The town is not once mentioned in the Old Testa- 
ment, or in the books of the Apocrypha. It was a 
small village, less than two miles from Jerusalem, 
near Bethphage, with which it is often mentioned. It 
lay on the eastern slope of Mount Olivet, near the 
road from Jerusalem to Jericho. From Bethany 
there was an unobstructed view of the steep descent 
to the river Jordan, and beyond the river were the 
mountains of Perea. 1 It was in that region that Jesus 

1 Smith's Bible Dictionary. Art. Bethany. 



l6o THE GOSPEL OF REST. 

was abiding when the sisters sent their messengers to 
tell Him that their brother Lazarus was sick. 1 For 
three days they watched for His coming up that steep 
ascent. When, at last, He came, Martha and Mary 
met Him on that same road. 

We are not told how Jesus came to be known to 
the family at Bethany. Indeed, the four Gospels give 
but an outline of His life, and they leave many gaps. 
If we had a circumstantial account, like Boswell's 
Johnson, or a modern autobiography, we should be 
able to trace various lines of influence, and to under- 
stand some references that are now very perplexing. 

The earliest reference to our Lord at Bethany 
occurs in connection with the Feast of Tabernacles, 
six months before the end of His life. 2 St. Luke tells 
us that " He entered into a certain village, and a cer- 
tain woman named Martha received Him into her 
house. And she had a sister called Mary, which 
also sat at the Lord's feet, and heard His word. But 
Martha was cumbered about much serving ; and she 
came up to Him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care 
that my sister did leave me to serve alone? Bid her, 
therefore, that she help me." This family scene, and 
especially the reproof that Jesus gave to Martha, 
implies previous acquaintance. But when it began, 
or how, we are not told. 

The next reference to Bethany is some two or three 
months later. 3 Jesus had gone away " beyond the Jor- 
dan unto the place where John was at first baptizing." 
Lazarus was sick, and the sisters sent a messenger to 

1 Stanley. Sinai and Palestine, pp. 186-7. 

2 St. Luke x. 38-42. 8 St. John xi. 3. 



THE GOSPEL OF REST. l6l 

say : " Lord, behold he whom thou lovest is sick." 
We read directly : " Now Jesus loved Martha, and her 
sister, and Lazarus." Jesus went and called Lazarus 
from the tomb, and then returned to " the city called 
Ephraim, and there He tarried with the disciples." 1 

The next visit was six days before the Passover. 2 
Jesus came with a clear knowledge that His hour had 
come, and He selected the home in Bethany as the 
place where he would spend the last days. He must 
have come this time also, up the steep road from the 
Jordan, and from Jericho. It was the seventh day of 
the week when He came. And " they made Him a 
supper, and Martha served, but Lazarus was one of 
them that sat at the table with Him." 3 Mary an- 
ointed His head 4 and His feet, 5 with the precious 
ointment, and wiped His feet with her hair. The act 
soothed Him. He accepted it as a tribute of grati- 
tude, and an act of faith. "She hath come," He said, 
" to anoint my body for the burying." " Wheresoever 
this gospel shall be preached in all the world, there 
shall also this, which this woman (of Bethany) hath 
done, be told for a memorial of her." The next day, 
which was the first day of the week (if we follow the 
order of St. John), 6 He made His triumphal entry — 
shall we not say His royal entry — " into Jerusalem, 
and into the temple : and when He had looked round 
about upon all things, and now the eventide was 
come, He went out unto Bethany with the twelve." 7 

1 St. John xi. 54. * St. Matt. xxvi. 7. 

2 St. John xii. 1. 5 St. John xii. 3. 

3 St. John xii. 1-16. 6 St. John xii. 12. 

7 St. Markxi. 11. 
11 



1 62 THE GOSPEL OF REST. 

After the next day, which was crowded with action 
and with teaching, 1 we read that " when even was 
come He went out of the city," 2 perhaps to the garden, 
but more probably this time, also, to Bethany. 

The gospels also indicate that it was from Bethany 3 
that He sent His disciples into the city to make ready 
the Passover, and as the day began to wear away, He 
left His refuge and retreat, the last He was to find on 
earth, and went again to Jerusalem to eat the Pass- 
over with His disciples, and then to be betrayed, and 
condemned, and crucified. 

I. 

Thus we see that there was a place for Bethany in 
the life of the Son of man. He had a mission to 
fulfil. In His very childhood He felt that He must 
be about His Father's business. His years of public 
service were very few. He died while He was yet 
comparatively young. His few years were crowded 
with labor. It was a very busy, earnest life, full of 
exhausting services. Each place where He dwelt 
was the scene of His labors. Many of His mighty 
works were done in Capernaum and the cities that 
were near it. Whenever He went to Jerusalem He 
wrought great miracles, and taught the people from 
day to day. From the beginning to the end of His 
ministry His life was intense and crowded. 

And yet there were times when He said to His 
disciples : " Let us go aside into a desert place and 

1 St. Luke xxi. 37. 2 St. Mark xi. 19. 

3 St. Matt. xxvi. 2-6, St. Mark xiv. 1-3, 12. 



THE GOSPEL OF REST. 1 63 

rest awhile." J At other times, when He was ex- 
hausted with labor, He would leave them, and go 
away " into a mountain Himself alone!' 2 Sometimes 
He constrained them to get into a ship, and push out 
upon the sea, that He might be fanned by the cool 
breezes of the lake ; and then He would sink into the 
deep sleep that follows exhaustion, after the fevered 
brow has begun to cool, and the anxious thoughts to 
give place to tranquil meditations. 

These things show us very plainly that our Lord 
Jesus was a true Son of man. He was touched with 
the feeling of our infirmities. He bore our griefs 
and carried our sorrows. His work told upon a sen- 
sitive, human organization. He was often weary, and 
hungry, and when He lay down at night His rest was 
sweet, as it is to any tired man. This was a part of 
what He took upon Himself in taking our nature. 
It brings Him into relations of sympathy with us, for 
" He knoweth our frame ; He remembereth that we 
are dust." 3 

II. 

But these things in the life of Jesus teach us more 
than that. He is our only perfect example. If there 
was a place for Bethany in His earthly life, there 
should be a Bethany in our lives. His example 
teaches us The Gospel of Rest. 

There are two views of life which one meets among 
good people. One of them has room for Bethany : 
the other has not. 

For there are those who make a virtue of constant 
work. They are always under pressure. The chief 

1 St. Mark vi. 31. 2 St. John vi. 15. 3 p s> c iii. I4 . 



1 64 THE GOSPEL OF REST. 

end of life is to do things. If they rest it is only to 
gain strength to work. They take it for granted that 
toil and care are the only things for which we live. 
It is with this view of life that people so often say 
that they do not wish to live after their usefulness is 
past. They wonder that God so often detains the 
aged on this earth after their days of activity have 
gone by. 

One with this view of life will be likely to make all 
things bend to it. Youth is but a preparation for 
service. Education will be intensely practical. Those 
studies which do not help our practical work will be 
passed by. The education which develops the sen- 
sibilities, cultivates the imagination, and refines the 
taste, and improves the moral and religious nature 
will be discarded. 

Periods of rest are thought of as lost time. Men 
are estimated according to their ability for productive 
labor. Life comes to be regarded as a period of toil, 
and man as a creature of superior sagacity and capac- 
ity for labor. If they are religious people they have 
no appreciation of a contemplative Christianity. 
Their tabernacle must be always moving. They 
seem to fear lest the rest of Heaven should come too 
soon to those who " labor and are heavy laden." 

III. 

It is plain that this is a narrow view of the purpose 
of life in the world. It is a view which destroys 
itself, for he who lives only to work cannot be a good 
worker. The best work, and the largest amount of 



THE GOSPEL OF REST. 1 65 

work, is done by those whose plan of life is larger 
and more generous. 

In the first place God has given us a great variety of 
powers. Some are for work, and some are for play ; 
some for song, and some for worship. We have our 
hands and our busy minds. But we have also our 
tastes, our sensibilities, — the imagination that 

..." bodies forth 
The forms of things unknown, 
. . . and gives to airy nothing 
A local habitation and a name." 1 

We have the religious nature, which connects us with 
the spiritual and the eternal. Each lower power is 
designed to minister to those that are above it. If the 
lower power should be developed, much more should 
those that are higher. Every power which God has 
given us is worthy of the fullest development. 

In the second place, the plan of life which God 
has marked out in nature and in the Bible, is not 
merely a plan for work. It is God who causes the 
night to follow the day, so that our time of labor must 
be limited to a part of the hours. If " He giveth His 
beloved sleep." their thoughts go forth in dreams, 
and they wander amid scenes fairer and more restful 
than their waking hours ever bring them. If sleep 
eludes them their meditation of God is sweet, and 
often " He giveth them songs in the night." If the 
commandment is : " Six days shalt thou labor and 
do all thy work," it is also, " Remember the Sabbath 
day, and keep it holy." We are required to rest, 
because " God rested from all His work which He 

1 A Midsummer Night's Dream. Act v. Scene 1. 



l66 THE GOSPEL OF REST. 

created and made." He made it plain that the object 
of the Sabbath is not merely that men may do more 
work. God connected great ideas with the Sabbath. 
We are not to rest as the brutes rest. God has ap- 
pointed special religious services for the day, and has 
made it a suggestion to us of the rest of Heaven. He 
has made it, so to speak, a sort of Bethany day, — a 
day of relief and refreshment, of friendship and love, 
a day when we may get out from the current of toil 
and come into communion with spiritual beings. The 
highest forms of civilization, the finest development 
of personal character, the sweetest and most per- 
fect home life, are found where the Lord's day is 
observed as a day of rest and of worship. 

Observe, also, how often the working days of the 
people of Israel were interrupted by the great reli- 
gious festivals, three in every year, two of seven days 
each, when all the men were required to go up to 
Jerusalem. These were not so frequent as to cherish 
an indolent habit among the people, but they were 
fitted to enlarge the acquaintance of the people with 
their own country, and to broaden and liberalize their 
views. It may be that the influence which the Jews 
have exerted is due in part to this training. 

But God teaches us by His Providence as truly as 
by His Word. How often the course of active life is 
interrupted by sickness. How many spend months 
and years, when, as they say, they are quite useless. 
And yet to how many these lost days are the turning 
points in life. A large proportion of those who are 
now living belong to the class of disabled people. 
They are permanent invalids; they are unable to 



THE GOSPEL OF REST. 1 67 

walk ; they are shut in from the world ; they are the 
Lord's hidden ones. They are blind as Milton was ; 
they are spending the quiet evening of life in rest 
and contemplation. " Whom the Lord loveth He 
chasteneth." But those who think that the chief pur- 
pose of life is activity, cannot understand why God 
deals in this way with so large a number. 

IV. 

We may learn the true plan of life by looking again 
and more comprehensively at the life of Christ. 

In one of His discourses, the Saviour draws a con- 
trast between himself and John the Baptist. John 
was the type of a narrow, severe man, of pure life 
and earnest spirit. He shunned the genial influences 
of social life. He dwelt in the wilderness. His rai- 
ment was of camel's hair, and his food was locusts 
and wild honey. He preached the law rather than 
the gospel. He preached, saying, "Repent," but he 
had no offer to make of divine help and grace. His 
religion was one of self-denial, and self-subjection. It 
was of the Old Testament, not of the New ; good so 
far as it went, but lacking the sweet charity of the 
gospel, and the freeness of a true spiritual life. He 
had no place for Bethany. The severe, ascetic forms 
of Christianity are the reflection of his spirit. Her- 
mits and monks have followed him into the deserts, 
and have thought to overcome sin by voluntary pen- 
ances and flagellations. 

Was Jesus such a man as John ? Some would 
have us believe that He v/as, and that our religion 



1 68 THE GOSPEL OF REST. 

ought to be like his. But what does our Lord say? 
" John came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, 
and ye say, he hath a devil. The Son of man is 
come eating and drinking, and ye say, Behold, a man 
gluttonous, and a wine bibber, a friend of publicans 
and sinners." 1 

Jesus was not a gluttonous man, nor a wine bibber, 
but from this contrast, which he has taught us to draw, 
we can understand what manner of man he was. He 
lived a simple, natural, human life. He was a genial, 
gracious man. He did not despise the good or the 
beautiful things of life. He was not unwilling to be 
present at the marriage in Cana of Galilee, and when 
the wine was exhausted He provided an ample store 
for their innocent festivities by miraculous power. His 
preaching was not in the deserts, but in the cities and 
villages, and the homes of the people. He gladly 
accepted the invitations of those who desired him to 
come to their feasts, and He compared the Kingdom 
of God to a Great Supper with a free invitation. 
Yet He had earnest work to do. Few have toiled so 
severely. No one has ever tried so hard to do good, 
and to save the lost. No life has ever been so fully 
under the power of love. 

Jesus began to preach when He was about thirty 
years old, and He died when He was thirty-three. 
Of what use were all the years before? Thirty 
wasted years, were they? Wasted years? He was 
growing. He was thinking. He was communing 
with the Father, and assuredly, there was no waste in 
that. But, if He had come to do the greatest pos- 

1 St. Luke vii. 33-34- 



THE GOSPEL OF REST. 1 69 

sible number of things, He might have begun earlier, 
and stayed away from Bethany. But if He desired 
to show us how large and generous the plan of life 
should be, — how careful the preparation, — if He 
would teach us that a man is more and greater than 
his business ; that he should always master his busi- 
ness, and never permit it to make him its slave ; then 
it was wise for the Son of man to wait, in His home 
in Nazareth, with Mary His mother, until His powers 
were mature, though it took thirty silent years. And 
then, when He did go forth, it was well to go as 
a gentle, sympathetic, earnest man, who loved the 
flowers, and the children, and the homes of the 
lowly, — to enter as well into the joys, as the sor- 
rows of men. It is well that Jesus has given us an 
example of earnest work, — work from which no cir- 
cumstance of hardship was absent, work that was 
never abandoned on account of difficulty, or peril ; 
and yet, that all through this blessed life of His there 
were days of rest, and refreshment; that He some- 
times went apart to meditate and pray; that He 
went, as His custom was, to the synagogue on the 
Sabbath day; that He went to the house of Martha 
and Mary, when He was on His way to Gethsemane, 
and to Calvary. 

Again, we should bear in mind that the work of 
Jesus was work for the higher nature of man. He 
did not labor for the meat that perisheth, or to make 
useful inventions, or to reform society or government, 
or to increase the wealth of the world. He regarded 
man as a spiritual being, and taught that " a man's 
life consisteth not in the abundance of the things 



170 THE GOSPEL OF REST. 

that he possesseth." He pointed to a life of charity, 
and the highest goodness, as the best life. He taught 
us, by all His manner of life, that human beings are 
the really important parts of God's creation ; and that 
every power God has given should be developed ; and 
that whether we work or rest, whether in action or 
contemplation, we should seek to live as the children 
of the Father in Heaven, and should seek to become 
pure as He is pure, and holy as He is holy. 

I have opened this line of thought because I think 
we have special need of these truths. A distin- 
guished Englishman, who visited this country a few 
years ago, has published a very severe and somewhat 
exaggerated criticism upon the civilization which he 
found in the United States. He admits that our 
faults are due in part to the newness of our country, 
and the pressure of the great work of settling a new 
world. But he says that our view of life and its in- 
terests is too narrow, and too low; that we neglect 
the higher sentiments of reverence ; that we lack an 
appreciation of pure beauty, and truth, and right- 
eousness : and that we subordinate all things to a nar- 
row view of practical utility ; that the dollar is, with 
too many of us, the great object of life. Some of the 
things he says of us may be true. There is no human 
society that has yet approached the ideal which our 
Redeemer set before us in His life and His wonderful 
words. His life is broader and richer in suggestions 
than many suppose. If it ended at Calvary, He was 
preparing for Calvary at Nazareth and at Bethany. 

This world is not merely a workshop. It is not the 



THE GOSPEL OF REST. I71 

whole purpose of life to " get on in the world." The 
curse of labor rests upon our race, but it is lightened 
by Redemption. The notion that the time is lost 
when we are not at work is wrong. Man is more 
than his work. If he permits himself to be mastered 
and driven by it, he is no better than a slave. Rest 
is a duty, not only for the sake of gaining fresh 
strength for labor, but for the sake of getting time to 
think, and pray, and commune with God. If one 
side of our nature requires action, another side re- 
quires contemplation. They serve the Lord " who 
only stand and wait." Every faculty of the soul is 
worth developing. The beautiful is as truly from 
God as the useful. 

If we live as we should, life will grow richer as we 
grow older. The man of established principles, with 
the wisdom that comes from a long experience, will 
find that his horizon is widening with every year of 
advancing life. His thoughts ought to be clearer, 
his tastes purer, his creed more catholic, as he 
mounts towards the land of Beulah and the Celestial 
City. He should drop the prejudices, the resent- 
ments, the narrowness of earlier years, and should 
enter more fully into the life of charity. 

Blessed is the man who has a home, and who has 
made it a dwelling place of pure affections. Let him 
make it attractive. Let it be as comfortable and as 
beautiful as his means will permit. Let books and 
pictures be among its treasures. Let some hour in 
the day be sacred to a real family life. 

Blessed is the man who has a Sabbath in his home. 
It is a little of Heaven for us here. It is a day for 



172 THE GOSPEL OF REST. 

gentleness and love, for pure and gracious words, for 
high thoughts, for prayer and worship, for drawing 
nearer to each other and to God. 

Blessed are those who know where to find their 
Bethany, and when to visit it. It is some place, 
not too far away, and not too near, where it will be 
possible sometimes to go : perhaps the old family 
home, where father and mother yet live, or where 
they used to live ; perhaps some other home, where 
Lazarus who loves us dwells, or Mary and Martha. 
Possibly it lies beyond the sea. There will be times 
to go, perhaps long expected and planned for, or 
times coming unexpectedly, when rest is necessary, 
when Lazarus is sick ; or times when the cross is very 
near and very heavy. Go to rest. Go to freshen 
your feelings, and deepen your experiences. Go to 
comfort Mary and Martha. Go to be comforted. 
But go, not too often, and yet sometimes. 

But above all are those blessed who have learned 
the true philosophy of life, and who have strength and 
grace to follow it ; who know how to do faithfully the 
work of life, without coming into bondage to work ; 
who are liberal, and yet earnest and true; who are 
orthodox, but not narrow; temperate, but not cen- 
sorious; who can use good things without abusing 
them ; who are generous, but not prodigal ; cheerful 
enough to go to Bethany, and brave enough to go to 
Calvary. 

The things that perplex us here will be made plain 
in Heaven. But the joy of Heaven comes from the 
sorrows of earth, and its crowns from the crosses we 
are bearing. Heaven is not Bethany, any more than 



THE GOSPEL OF REST. 1 73 

it is Capernaum ; but the cares and duties of Caper- 
naum, and the rests of Bethany, are working to fit us 
for the higher service, and the everlasting rest of the 
kingdom of God's love. 

Are they so working, friends? Are you getting 
from life its real discipline : living in such a way that 
all your experiences shall serve to build up characters 
that are true and strong. Childhood and youth, 
school life and business life, work and play, Bethany 
and Capernaum should do something towards it. 
The real issues of life will depend not so much upon 
what we do, or what we possess, as upon what we 
become ; and by God's grace we can be prepared to 
enter into the " rest that remaineth for the people of 
God." 



XL 

GROWTH OF THE KINGDOM BY LITTLE 
AND LITTLE. 



XL 

GROWTH OF THE KINGDOM BY LITTLE 
AND LITTLE. 

By little and little I will drive them out from before thee. 

Exodus xxiii. 30. 

A FEW words will explain the text. The children 
of Israel were encamped at Mount Sinai, on their 
way from Egypt to the land of promise. God had 
appeared upon the holy mount, and had spoken to 
the people out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, 
and of the thick darkness, with a great voice. A 
little later He had given to Moses other laws for His 
people. In this twenty-third chapter He is speaking 
of the land to which they were going, and of the way 
in which He was leading them. " Behold I send an 
angel before thee, to keep thee by the way, and to 
bring thee into the place which I have prepared." 1 
This beautiful figure of the angel of God leading the 
pilgrim host towards Canaan, often comes out in 
their literature. " Mine angel shall go before thee, 
and bring thee in unto the Amorite, and the Hittite, 
and the Perizzite, and the Canaanite, the Hivite, and 
the Jebusite, and I will cut them off." 2 

How natural it is for us to take it for granted that, 
if God were to cast out those wicked 'tribes, He would 

1 Exodus xxiii. 20. 2 Exodus xxiii. 23. 

12 



178 GROWTH OF KINGDOM BY LITTLE AND LITTLE. 

do it at once. For assuredly He has power to do it. 
But God never does all that He has power to do. It 
would not be best for His people to be shielded from 
all temptations, and excused from the conflicts of life. 
" I pray not," said our Saviour, in His intercessory 
prayer, " that thou shouldest take them from the 
world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the 
evil one." * And so God said to Israel, " by little 
and little I will drive them out from before thee, until 
thou be increased, and inherit the land." 

This was God's method with Israel. In the book 
of Joshua we read of the successful war with the 
nations of Canaan. They combined against the chil- 
dren of Israel, and gathered two great armies, which 
were provided with the most efficient weapons of war 
that were known in that age, and with horses " and 
chariots of iron." 2 The war had its culmination in 
two great battles, like our Chancellorsville and Get- 
tysburg. As the result of the war the power of the 
Canaanites was broken, and the Israelites entered in 
and possessed the land, with its cities and its strong- 
holds. But, after all, the Canaanites dwelt among 
them. They were subdued, but not destroyed. All 
through the book of Judges we read of these idola- 
trous people. Sometimes they gathered strength, so 
as to bring God's people under their power. And 
then, when Israel repented, and returned to the Lord, 
they were able to throw off the yoke. It was four hun- 
dred years before the children of Israel, in the time 
of David, had full possession of the land of promise. 
" By little and little " their enemies were cast out. 

1 St. John xvii. 15. 2 Joshua xvii. 16. 



GROWTH OF KINGDOM BY LITTLE AND LITTLE. 1 79 



I. 

We have a principle of God 's method of working, in 
this text, which I wish to illustrate. The Bible 
teaches that God is the First Cause of all things, 
" In the beginning God." a He created the world. 
He created the stars. He created man. He holds 
all things in being. He doeth His pleasure, and 
none can stay His hand. And yet this Infinite and 
Almighty Being limits Himself, so that He does His 
work " by little and little." Not in one day did God 
make the world, according to the Bible, but in six 
days, and the work of each day was very good. Our 
science is showing that the world was prepared for 
the use of men in the long geologic periods, when 
changes came very slowly, and each change set for- 
ward the great process but a little. A thousand 
years is with the Lord as one day, and one day as a 
thousand years. There have been, it is true, great 
crises in the world's history, when changes have come 
suddenly, as at the time of the Flood. But, for the most 
part, the changes have come slowly. The earth was 
slowly cooled. The continents were slowly elevated 
above the sea. The mountains are slowly wearing 
away, by frosts, and snows, and mountain streams. 
The great Ice-Age was slowly broken up. Every 
summer shower does something towards wearing away 
the hills, and filling the valleys. By little and little 
these changes are going forward ; but how much 
they amount to in a thousand years. 

1 Gen. i. 1. 



ISO GROWTH OF KINGDOM BY LITTLE AND LITTLE. 



II. 

How quiet and slow the great changes that are 
going forward within our own observation. Who has 
not admired the changes that come at day-break, — the 
early gleam in the east, the gray light in which the 
morning stars begin to fade, the kindling that pre- 
cedes the sunrise, the shining light that gilds the 
mountain tops, — so silent and slow that no one can 
tell when the night passes into the morning, and yet, 
how glorious the morning that ushers in the day. 

Is there anything in nature more wonderful than 
the change from the depth of a winter in these northern 
latitudes to the golden summer ? But how slowly the 
seasons change. The themometer marks zero, and 
there is ice and snow and desolation all about us. 
The mercury rises a few degrees, and the snow-drifts 
are settling, and the ice is softening. It rises a few 
degrees higher, and the drifts are gone ; we see the 
hard and frozen ground ; a few degrees more, and 
the streams are set free from their icy chains, the 
showers begin to fall, the buds to swell, the flowers 
to open, the first birds are here, and there is green- 
ness and fragrance all about us. A little more, and 
the trees are putting on their coronal of leaves, the 
fruit blossoms appear ; there is once more an abund- 
ance of insect life about us. The summer has come 
with its beauty and its power. The change has run 
through weeks, and even months, but every day the 
summer is a few miles nearer; and so it comes, 
surely, though with lingering steps. 



GROWTH OF KINGDOM BY LITTLE AND LITTLE. l8l 

We have in the world, it may be, fifteen hundred 
millions of human beings. I suppose there is never, 
at one time, food enough to supply these millions for 
more than a twelve-month. If the earth were to cease 
to provide food so long as a whole year there would 
be famine everywhere. How does God feed the 
world ? Not by laying up food in His storehouses. 
But there is " first the blade, then the ear, then the 
full corn in the ear." 1 In this field wheat is growing, 
in that, it is corn, further on it is barley, — in every 
field something is growing, in every land over the round 
world. These little grains, — so small that a little 
bird can pick them up, — these little grains furnish 
bread for a hungry world, and they have been doing 
it ever since God made man, and gave all these pro- 
ducts of the fruitful earth to nourish his life. God 
fed His people in the wilderness with manna, a small 
round thing like coriander seed, just as He has been 
feeding the children of men for so many generations, 
with these little grains that grow every summer out 
of the ground. 

III. 

This is God's law in the natural world. Let us see 
how the same law shows itself in the spiritual world. 
It is not by might, nor by power, but by the still 
small voice of the Spirit. 2 

Take as a test illustration, the life of our Saviour 
while He dwelt among men. He was tempted by the 
Devil, when he was beginning His ministry, to do strik- 
ing and sensational things, — to fling Himself from the 

1 St. Markiv. 28. 2 1 Kings xix. 11-12. 



1 82 GROWTH OF KINGDOM BY LITTLE AND LITTLE. 

pinnacle of the temple, that the splendid angels might 
bear Him up, to make bread from stones, to gain 
power in all the world by an ambitious and worldly 
policy such as that which Mahomet adopted, when he 
led the Saracen armies to the conquest of the nations. 1 
Why was it that our Lord did not follow such a plan 
of life ? He might have had more than twelve legions 
of angels to aid His work. They could have preached 
the gospel in all the world during His lifetime. 2 

The fact is that Jesus rejected all such suggestions 
as temptations of the god of this world, and he se- 
lected the quiet, unostentatious life of a teacher and 
preacher and helper of men. " By little and little " 
He did His work. At the beginning of His ministry, 
instead of casting Himself down from a pinnacle of 
the temple in a dramatic way, so as to be rescued by 
the angels, He commenced by talking about the 
Kingdom of God with Andrew, and Simon Peter, 
two fishermen, who had come to the baptism of 
John. 3 The next day He talked with Philip and with 
Nathaniel. The next day He went with His disci- 
ples, to a marriage in Cana of Galilee, where He had 
been invited with His mother. There His first miracle 
was wrought, not for Himself, but for others. 4 Then 
He seems to have gone to Nazareth, where He had 
been brought up, and He went, as His custom had 
been from His childhood, to the synagogue, on the 
Sabbath day. 5 Then He went to Capernaum, a city 
by the sea, and dwelt there. There He began to 

1 St. Matthew iv. 1-12. 3 St. John i. 38-48. 

2 St. Matthew xxvi. 53. 4 St. Johnii. 1-12. 

5 St. Luke iv. 16. 



GROWTH OF KINGDOM BY LITTLE AND LITTLE. 1 83 

preach in a simple way, saying, " Repent, for the 
kingdom of heaven is at hand." x Then He called 
other disciples, men of the common people, and they 
followed Him. After that He went from village to 
village, up and down in Galilee, " teaching in the syna- 
gogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and 
healing all manner of disease and all manner of sick- 
ness among the people," 2 sometimes raising the dead 
to life, sometimes commanding the winds and the 
sea, and they obeyed Him. But He made no display 
of this miraculous power. He wrought these signs 
and wonders when He had occasion to do so. He 
never wrought them to show how great things He 
could do. But He went about doing good, and when 
they brought the sick, or the lame, or the blind to 
Him, He healed them by a word, or by a touch, and 
then went on His way, to teach and to comfort and 
help all whom He met. It was the common people 
who heard Him gladly, — the fishermen of Galilee, 
the poor, the lepers, and the outcasts, publicans and 
sinners. He went, just as physicians do, to the sick, 
to those in the greatest need, to the lost. 

I think that Jesus accomplished a great work dur- 
ing His public ministry, but it was a humble work, 
done very quietly, with great self-denial, among 
obscure people, a little to-day, and a little more to- 
morrow, and so He filled out His days and months 
until the work was done. I suppose the wisdom of 
men would have chosen a different plan of life for the 
divine Redeemer. We would have had the angels, 
who sang at the birth, become the ministers to His 

1 St. Matthew iv. 17. 2 St. Matthew iv. 23. 



184 GROWTH OF KINGDOM BY LITTLE AND LITTLE. 

childhood, and His youth. 1 We would have had Him 
transfigured upon the mount of glory so often that 
His divinity would have been continually flashing out, 
so that no one would have dared to hinder His work. 
But that was not His way. There was one day of 
transfiguration, and only one. 2 He was more truly 
divine in His estate of humiliation, eating with publi- 
cans and sinners, preaching the gospel to the poor, 
blessing the little children, washing the feet of His 
disciples, than He would have been if the glory of all 
the kingdoms of the world had been given to Him. 

IV. 

If this was the way in which our Lord did His 
work, it is not surprising that the Christian Church 
was planted by a similar method. There was, it is 
true, the great day of Pentecost, when the disciples 
were " endued with power from on high," and when 
thousands were added to the Lord in a day. 3 But 
that was only the beginning. Those new disciples 
became witnesses. Very soon persecution began, 
and they were all " scattered abroad throughout the 
regions of Judea and Samaria, except the Apostles." 4 
Those humble men and women told the story of Jesus 
wherever they went, and men believed. There were 
not many wise men among them, — not many learned 
or eloquent men. The most efficient of them all was 
Paul, the tentmaker, whose own hands ministered to 
his necessities. 5 Those early Christians were gener- 

1 St. Luke ii. 9-14. 3 Acts ii. 1-4. 

2 St. Mark ix. 2. 4 Acts viii. 1. 

5 Acts xx. 23. 



GROWTH OF KINGDOM BY LITTLE AND LITTLE. 1 85 

ally men of one talent. It is true they had the 
power to work miracles, but they used this power 
very quietly. They never sought occasions for the 
display of their miraculous gifts. They used them, 
in connection with the preaching of the gospel, as 
the tokens God had given them that their commission 
was from Him. They used them to heal, and comfort, 
and help those to whom they were giving their mes- 
sage, but never to draw attention to themselves. 
They did not do great and striking things. The 
world despised them. "By little and little" they 
made their way from village to village, and from 
province to province, until in the course of two or 
three generations, the little leaven hidden in the 
meal 1 had diffused itself through all the provinces of 
the Roman Empire. 

The progress of the Kingdom of Christ in the 
world since that day has been by a similar method. 
When the Anglo-Saxons invaded Britain, and swept 
away the Christianity that had been planted there, it 
took more than a century to re-establish the church 
in that island. It took several hundred years to bring 
central and northern Europe from paganism to Chris- 
tianity. The progress of modern missions has been 
such as to encourage the church, but it has not been 
rapid. We are making progress every year in India, 
and China, and Japan, and in Africa. But it is "by 
little and little." The time has not yet come when " a 
nation shall be born at once." 2 The progress of 
freedom in the world is comparatively slow. The 
great reforms we are now pushing forward are gain- 
1 St. Matt. xiii. 33. 2 Isa. lxvi. 8. 



1 86 GROWTH OF KINGDOM BY LITTLE AND LITTLE. 

ing ground, but it will require a great deal of faith 
and self-sacrifice to secure the final triumph of jus- 
tice, and temperance, and the law of kindness and 
charity in the world. 

V. 

Let us take as another illustration, the unfolding of 
the spiritual life in a single individual. And here I 
may appeal to your own experience as believers in 
Christ. Go back to the time when your new life 
began. It is possible that you fancied that the vic- 
tory had been won. You had a new and living hope, 
with the peace of God, and the joy of His salvation. 
As time went on, however, you learned that you were 
exposed to many temptations, and that your power 
of resistance was very weak. So that, as the Apostle 
says, when you willed to do good, evil was present 
with you, and the good you desired to do, you failed 
of doing. 1 The Canaanites were yet in your land, — 
the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, 
and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, and they insisted 
upon dwelling there. 

How, then, have you made progress in the new 
life? Has it not been "by little and little"? You 
have gained strength by private prayer ; entering into 
your closet, and shutting out the world, and coming 
into direct communion with your Father, who seeth 
in secret. 2 You have found the Bible an unfailing 
source of strength, as you have read it from day to 
day. You have availed yourself of the great system 
of Christian nurture which the church has for all her 
I Rom, vii. 19. 2 St. Matt. vi. 6. 



GROWTH OF KINGDOM BY LITTLE AND LITTLE. 1 87 

members, such as Christian fellowship, social and 
public worship, the constant and prayerful use of the 
ministry of the word. You have needed, day by day, 
to get your daily bread by the use of these means of 
Christian growth. If, at any time, you have neglected 
any of these means, such as private prayer, the reading 
of the Bible, or the Sabbath worship, you have found 
that you were losing and not gaining. Those whom 
you have seen falling behind in the Christian race 
have very often confessed that it was from the neglect 
of these simple duties of the closet, or the family 
altar, or of the sanctuary. 

Each one of the Christian graces has a slow 
growth. Faith, for example, is weak, and unstable 
at first. We learn to trust God by trusting Him. 
We gain the assurance of faith by years of exper- 
ience. Only the mature Christian can enter into the 
confident trust of David, or of Paul, or of that gifted 
New England poet who said : 

" I know not where His islands lift 

Their fronded palms in air, 
I only know I cannot drift 

Beyond His love and care. 
And so beside the silent sea 

I wait the muffled oar, 
No harm from Him can come to me, 

On ocean or on shore." x 

VI. 

The good we have done, has been, for the most part, 
by the little quiet deeds of a common life. The Saviour 
gave his approval to such as gave cups of water in 
1 Whittier. The Eternal Goodness. 



1 88 GROWTH OF KINGDOM BY LITTLE AND LITTLE. 

the name of a disciple, to those who visited the 
prisoners, and clothed the naked, and fed the hungry. 
He said, " he that is faithful in that which is least, 
is faithful also in much." 1 "Ye are the light of the 
world," He said, — " let your light so shine before 
men, that they may see your good works, and glorify 
your Father which is in heaven." 2 In saying this, He 
placed us in the same relation to our fellow men, with 
Himself, for He came as the light of the world. 3 If 
we are indeed the light of the world, our light will 
go forth quietly and constantly, like the rays of the 
sun, which are always shining, which go without noise 
or stir, which would not waken an infant in its cradle, 
but which bring life to all the world. Great occa- 
sions come but seldom to any of us. To the largest 
number they never come. The great good that is 
done in the world is not apt to be done by those 
who are the most brilliant, or the richest, or the most 
famous. It is rather by those who are faithful from 
day to day, in the common duties of a common life. 

VII. 

Let us now apply this principle, which God seems 
to follow in nature, and in His providence, and in the 
unfolding of the spiritual life, to the work of the 
church. 

I do not forget, of course, that the church has, back 
of it, the power of Christ. It is strong in the pre- 
sence of God's Spirit. The church uses the truth 
which God has revealed, and the ordinances which 
1 St. Luke xvi. 10. 2 St. Matt. v. 16. 3 St. John viii. 12. 



GROWTH OF KINGDOM BY LITTLE AND LITTLE. 1 89 

He has appointed. It is also true, that every church 
has its own special work to do, and its success will 
depend upon its fidelity, and its wisdom. The work 
of a church is, — scattering the seeds of truth among 
the people, training the children for Christ, caring 
for the poor, and the sick, and the afflicted, and so 
showing forth the true spirit of religion. How simple 
this work is, — partly a work of education, and train- 
ing, of teaching the divine word, of living good lives, 
by doing good to all about us as the Master did. It 
consists in a multitude of little things, in which the 
youngest and weakest may have a part, and yet 
the final result is such as will cause the angels to 
rejoice. 

Here, for example, is a young Christian, with a 
class in the Sunday School. She studies her Bible 
faithfully. She visits her pupils, and wins their con- 
fidence. She seeks to get the best methods of teach- 
ing. She prays for her scholars by name, from day 
to day. I have in mind such teachers as that, who 
have been owned of God in leading their scholars 
into the life of faith. The influence of such teachers 
is very often as permanent as life itself. 

Take the work of a mother, who is moulding the 
characters of her children by the principles of kind- 
ness, and honesty, and piety. Her own character 
counts for more than her words, — the tones of her 
voice, the whole tenor of her life. There is no other 
influence to be compared with hers, for she makes 
the earliest impressions, and the most permanent. 
The church which has such mothers training young 
souls for the life eternal, cannot fail to grow. 



190 GROWTH OF KINGDOM BY LITTLE AND LITTLE. 

Or, take the work of a pastor. It is seldom that 
he has any great things to do. He is occupied from 
day to day with little things. His parochial work 
counts for more than his work in the pulpit. He is 
the minister of help and consolation to all sorts and 
conditions of men, to sick people, to the afflicted, and 
the tempted, to the poor, and the strangers, and the 
friendless. In his preaching the pastor needs to set 
forth the simple truths of the gospel, " the old, 
old story of Jesus and His love." He needs to keep 
himself clear from " philosophy and vain deceit, after 
the tradition of men, the rudiments of the world, and 
not after Christ ; " 1 and from the " enticing words of 
man's wisdom ; " and to determine to know nothing 
among his people "save, Jesus Christ, and Him cruci- 
fied. " 2 The useful minister is one who gives " line 
upon line, precept upon precept;" who minds not 
high things ; and who " watches for souls as one 
that must give account." 3 

The truth is, God's method of working, in the nat- 
ural world, and in the spiritual world is wonderful. 
He loves to hide His power. He works through 
human instruments, so that we may be co-workers 
with Him. It is true, in a wonderful way, that " our 
fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus 
Christ." 4 A Christian church has within itself all the 
means of growth. God's spirit and His truth are 
sufficient to secure a steady and a constant progress. 
There are opportunities coming to us all the time. 

1 Col. ii. 8. 3 H'eb. xiii. 17. 

2 1 Cor. ii. 2. 4 1 John i. 3. 



GROWTH OF KINGDOM BY LITTLE AND LITTLE. 191 

The prayer of faith reaches the ear of God. All 
things are possible to him that believeth. 

And still, our work is, and will continue to be, a 
work of faith. The poor we have always with us, 
even to this day. There are still people dwelling on 
the earth whose habitations are the habitations of 
cruelty. The kingdom of God has been extending, 
and it will assuredly fill the whole earth. But it is 
growing very slowly. By little and little, God is 
casting out the evil, and bringing in the good. Per- 
haps the final triumph of the kingdom may come in 
our time. But we cannot be sure. It is not for us 
to know the times or the seasons, which " the Father 
hath set within His own authority." 1 

But we can build, " every man over against his own 
house." 2 We can teach our children. We can bear 
our testimony to the reality of a religious experience. 
We can speak the kind word, and do the kind act 
day by day. We can give the widow's mite ; per- 
haps we can break the alabaster box of ointment. 
We can live, by God's help, gentle, faithful, helpful 
Christian lives. We can do good by little and little, 
day by day, and year by year. " She hath done 
what she could," was the highest commendation 
which our Lord bestowed upon any one ; and if we do 
that, the very humblest of us will be doing some- 
thing towards the complete and final triumph of the 
kingdom of God in the world. 

1 Acts i. 7. 2 Neli. iii. 28. 



XII. 

THE BOUND LIFE. 



*3 



XII. 

THE BOUND LIFE. 

And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, 
not knowing the things that shall befall me there. 

Acts xx. 22. 

It is an interesting question why St. Paul under- 
took his last journey to Jerusalem. He was in the 
midst of the most important work of his crowded 
life. He had been, for some twenty years, planting 
churches in the most important cities of Asia Minor, 
and of Greece. His personal influence in those 
churches was very great. His apostolic authority 
was recognized so that he had been able to repress 
the disorders in the great church at Corinth, and to 
check the defection of the churches of Galatia. He 
had, as he said, " the care of all the churches," and 
on this account, he had written, within a short period, 
the most important of his epistles, and sent them to 
the churches. It was the period of his greatest intel- 
lectual activity, and highest usefulness. But all at 
once, he determined to leave all this work, and go up 
to Jerusalem. 

Why was it? 

He tells us in one place that he went up to Jerusa- 
lem to worship. 1 In another place we read that he 
hasted to be at Jerusalem the day of Pentecost. 2 But 

1 Acts xxiv. 11. 2 Acts xx. 16. 



196 THE BOUND LIFE. 

he could have worshipped God as acceptably, while 
at his work in Macedonia, as in Jerusalem. He had 
taught that the laws of Moses concerning Jewish sacri- 
fices, and festivals were no longer binding. He states, 
in another place, that he went to carry the contribu- 
tion, which he had been gathering from the churches, 
for the poor saints at Jerusalem. But assuredly, he 
might have sent this contribution by the hand of 
Timothy, or of Luke, without leaving his work. 

Besides, the narrative shows that St. Paul knew 
that great dangers and trials awaited him at Jerusa- 
lem. He expresses the apprehension, in more than 
one place, that he should not be permitted to come 
back to the beloved churches that needed his services 
so much. And the question returns, why the great 
Apostle, who had been, for so many years, preaching 
the gospel all the way from Antioch to Philippi, and 
Corinth, should have left " his ministry, and labor of 
love," without any apparent necessity ; why he should 
have unclasped the hands that hung about his neck, 
and left the bedside of the sick, and the dying, and 
gone away to Jerusalem, where he was not needed, 
and where he knew that bonds and afflictions 
awaited him, and where it was only too likely that 
his useful life would be sacrificed." 1 

We have the answer in the text. " I go bound in 
the spirit unto Jerusalem." Some have said that by 
the spirit, Paul means the Holy Spirit. But the use 
of the word in other passages seems to show that it 
was his own spirit. 2 He was going to Jerusalem, 

1 Dr. J. O. Means, Bib. Sacra xxii. 529. 

2 Acts xvii. 16. Romans i. 9. Romans viii. 16. 



THE BOUND LIFE. 1 97 

free, as to his body, but constrained, as to his mind, 
bound in the spirit, by a clear conviction that God 
would have him go. It was not a vision such as 
Paul had, when, at Alexandria Troas, there stood a 
man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, " Come 
over and help us ; " 2 nor such as he had when the 
angel of God stood by him and said, " Fear not, Paul, 
thou must stand before Caesar." 2 This, so far as 
we know, was a simple conviction, impressed upon 
his mind, that God would have him leave his work, 
and go to Jerusalem. When we consider that this 
impression that the Lord was leading him towards 
Jerusalem governed his action, and led him into 
a new stage of his life, and that his yielding to this 
conviction was a turning point in his career, we have 
reason enough for inquiring as to the nature of this 
bindi?ig of the Spirit ; and its comiection with our 
present religious life. 

I. 

We have, in the first place, the plain statement that 
St. Paul was bound in the spirit to go unto Jerusalem. 
Turning back to the earliest reference to his plan, to 
go to Jerusalem, in his first epistle to the Corinthians, 
written a year before, we find him giving directions 
concerning the collection for the saints, and the mes- 
sengers who should carry it to Jerusalem, and saying 
" If it be meet for me to go also, they shall go with 
me." 3 So far, he was only thinking of going, but 

1 Acts xvi. 9. 2 Acts xxvii. 24. 

3 1 Cor. xvi. 1-4. 



198 THE BOUND LIFE. 

had no fixed purpose to go. A little later we read, 
in the nineteenth chapter of Acts, that Paul " pur- 
posed in the spirit ... to go to Jerusalem." 1 And now, 
after he has set out, he tells us that he was " bound 
in the spirit to go to Jerusalem." 

St. Paul had accustomed himself to follow the lead- 
ings of the Spirit of God. He looked for the divine 
direction, and expected it. If he had a rising inclina- 
tion to go in any direction, he sought for light as to 
the way of his duty, and under the guidance of God's 
Spirit the thought developed into a plan, and the 
plan into a purpose. 

The Bible teaches us that " the steps of a good 
man are ordered of the Lord." 2 We are told to 
commit our way unto the Lord. St. James says, " If 
any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God." 3 Our 
minds are open on all sides to the influence of God's 
Spirit. We recognize this fact' when we pray, " Lead 
us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil 
one." We have the gracious assurance of our Re- 
deemer : " Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the 
end." 4 He says, that the Comforter shall come and 
abide with us forever. 5 These assurances encourage 
the expectation that He will show us the way. 

Sometimes there is simply an impression upon the 
mind, which is deep and permanent. Sometimes this 
impression is confirmed by the course of events. It 
is connected with prayer. In such ways God calls 
young men to enter the Christian ministry, or to go 

1 Acts xix. 21. 3 James i. 5, 

2 Psalms xxxvii. 23, a. v. 4 St. Matthew xxviii. 20. 

5 St. John xiv. 16. 



THE BOUND LIFE. 199 

into the missionary work, or He calls His disciples to 
some special service. The Spirit seems to say to a 
disciple, " run speak to this young man," or go 
and enter upon that other service. In the old Eng- 
lish speech it was common to term a man's business, 
in life, his calling. In this sense we all have our 
callings. The life of a Christian is the life of faith. 
He walks by faith, not by sight, and expects to be 
guided by the will of the Father. He hears a voice 
that others do not hear ; he sees a light that others 
do not see. 

IL 

Following still further the teachings of the text, we 
should observe that St. Paul was going to Jerusalem 
not knowing the things that should befall him there. 
He had some general knowledge of them, for the 
Spirit testified unto him that in every city bonds and 
afflictions awaited him, 1 but as to the form of suffer- 
ing that was appointed him, and as to the issue of 
the visit to Jerusalem, he was left in the dark. In 
the chapter before this we read that St. Paul said that 
after he had been to Jerusalem he must also see 
Rome. 2 That was his plan, and writing to the 
Romans, a little before, he had said : " Now I be- 
seech you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ, and 
by the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with 
me in your prayers to God for me ; that I may be 
delivered from them that are disobedient in Judea, 
and that my ministration that I have for Jerusalem may 

x Acts xx. 23. 2 Acts xix. 21. 



200 THE BOUND LIFE. 

be acceptable to the saints ; that I may come unto 
you in joy through the will of God, and together with 
you may find rest." 1 This request discloses the 
deepest thoughts of the Apostle at this time. He was 
on his way to Jerusalem, with a clear conviction that 
it was the will of God that he should go, and yet he 
was going as Abraham went to Canaan, " not know- 
ing whither he went." He had his plans for service 
after this journey, but he was not sure that they 
would be carried out. He desired to see Rome, that 
he might have some fruit of his ministry in that city ; 
but he was not sure that he should see Rome. He 
had no idea, at that time, of the way by which God 
would take him to Rome, — after a long captivity, 
and a dangerous winter voyage, and a shipwreck : — 
take him there a prisoner in chains, with " a certain 
soldier that kept him," to dwell two whole years in 
his own hired house, receiving all who came unto 
him, preaching in bonds, the kingdom of God, no 
man forbidding him. 2 

Nevertheless, this last journey towards Jerusalem 
was full of forebodings of some great change in his 
life. There was an unwonted tenderness and solem- 
nity about his speech and his bearing. Thus, at Alex- 
andria Troas, he remained a whole week with the 
disciples : and on the First day of the week, he 
preached unto them, intending to depart en the mor- 
row; and prolonged his speech until midnight. It 
does not appear that Paul was ever before so long 
preaching. It was, as if he would make the most of 
a last opportunity. After He had restored to life the 

1 Romans xv. 30-32. 2 Actsxxviii. 16-31. 



THE BOUND LIFE. 201 

young man who had fallen down from the third story, 
and was taken up dead, we read, that he came up 
again into the upper room, and broke the sacramental 
bread with the disciples, and then, " he talked with 
them a long while, even till the break of day." The 
words do not indicate that it was a formal discourse } 
but a familiar talk, as the people gathered about the 
beloved Apostle. 1 

He did not go with his companions in the ship, 
the next day, although it would appear that they had 
all paid their fare for the whole voyage, for he pur- 
posed to go by land, and probably on foot, all the 
twenty miles to Assos, where they were next to land. 
The delay enabled him to spend a little more time 
with the disciples, for the ship must make a long 
course around Cape Lectum, while the Roman road 
which he would follow led directly across the country. 
St. Paul was now about sixty years old, and such a 
journey in the heat of that spring day would be un- 
dertaken only by a man of active habits and resolute 
spirit. He had been up all the night. But he de- 
sired to take a last look at the familiar places, for 
Troas was classic ground. He would pass by the 
streams of Ida, and through the celebrated oak 
groves, then in full foliage, which cover all that 
shore with greenness and shade. We can almost see 
the quick active man, of short stature, high and bald 
forehead, — as the old pictures represent him, — setting 
out from the city in the grey of the morning, pursu- 
ing his solitary way, taking in the beauties of the 
landscape, enjoying the solitude, and the hours of 

1 Acts xx. 7-12. 



202 THE BOUND LIFE. 

quiet communion with God. He entered Assos by 
the Sacred Way, among the famous tombs, through 
the ancient gateway which is still to be seen, and 
joined his companions, according to his plan in the 
morning. 1 

They came, after a sail of two or three days to 
Miletus, and St. Paul sent for the elders of the church 
of Ephesus. When they were come he said: " And 
now, I know that ye all among whom I went about 
preaching the kingdom, shall see my face no more. 
Wherefore, I testify unto you this day, that I am pure 
from the blood of all men. For I shrunk not from 
declaring unto you the whole counsel of God." We 
read that when the Apostle had finished his address, 
" he kneeled down, and prayed with them all. And 
they all wept sore, and fell on Paul's neck, and kissed 
him, sorrowing most of all for the word which he had 
spoken, that they should behold his face no more." 2 
So he went towards Jerusalem. 

Hastening his journey, the Apostle reached Tyre 
four or five days later. He sought out the disciples 
in that city also, and abode with them seven days. 
When he went away they followed him, with their 
wives and children, till they were out of the city : and 
then they kneeled down on the beach, and prayed, 
and bade each other farewell. 3 

Was there ever a journey fuller of pathos than this ? 
The great soul of the Apostle was full of affection for 
those disciples, many of whom were his spiritual 

1 Farrar's Life of St. Paul p. 512. Conybeare and Howson, vol. 
I. pp. 299-305. Vol. II. pp. 209-214. 

2 Acts xx. 25-38. 3 Acts xxi. 1-6. 



THE BOUND LIFE. 203 

children. But he was going away from them, " bound 
in the spirit unto Jerusalem," bidding farewell to 
each familiar place as he passed it ; — going in the 
spirit of a hero ; in the spirit of a martyr ; not know- 
ing whether he was to be a martyr or not ; knowing 
only that " bonds and afflictions awaited " him in every 
place. Yet none of these thing moved him, for he 
was ready for whatever might be appointed for him ; 
having a desire to depart and to be with Jesus, — and 
yet, having a desire, if the Lord should permit, to 
preach the gospel in Rome ; and then to push on into 
Spain, and plant the standard of the cross, by the 
pillars of Hercules. 

This is the life of faith ; going with simple trust, 
not always knowing where, not always knowing 
why, or how: but going forward, into the shad- 
ows ; into the darkness ; the unknown experiences ; 
ready for joy, or for sorrow as God may appoint, 
casting all our care upon Him, and trusting His word 
of promise. 

III. 

Another part of the experiences of St. Paul on this 
journey related to the persuasions of his friends, who 
desired to turn him back from Jerusalem. He had to 
sunder very strong ties when he set out for Jerusalem. 
His friends had not received the same indications of 
God's purposes, that had been given to him. And 
so they held him back with all the strength of their 
influence. It was so at Miletus, where the disciples 
accompanied him to the ship, and all " wept sore and 



204 THE BOUND LIFE. 

fell or his neck and kissed him." 1 It was still more 
so at Tyre, where the disciples " said to Paul through 
the Spirit, that he should not set foot in Jerusalem." 2 
They said this to him through the Spirit, and what 
was he to do ? He was bound as to his own spirit, to 
go, and yet these brethren, through the Holy Spirit, 
would hold hint back. Perhaps we should say, as 
Dean Alford does in his commentary on this passage, 
that this was an instance, in which the spirits of the 
prophets are subject unto the prophets : that is, the 
revelation made by the Holy Spirit was, in some sort, 
under the influence of that man's will and tempera- 
ment. Those Tyrian prophets knew, by the Spirit, 
that great trials awaited St. Paul, if he should go on, 
and their intense love for him led them to interpret 
the revelation as intended to prevent his journey. 
But the Apostle was under a leading of the Holy 
Spirit too plain to be mistaken, and so he followed 
the light which God was giving him, in his own 
soul, and gave no heed to the persuasions of his 
friends. 

When they reached Caesarea there came from 
Judea a prophet, named Agabus. This prophet, tak- 
ing Paul's girdle, bound his own feet and hands, and 
said: " Thus saith the Holy Spirit ; So shall the Jews 
at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, 
and shall deliver him to the Gentiles." St. Paul un- 
derstood this to be a message from God. Then his 
friends besought him not to go up to Jerusalem. 
But he answered, " What do ye, weeping and break- 
ing my heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, 

1 Acts xx. 37. 2 Acts xxi. 4. 



THE BOUND LIFE. 205 

but also to die at Jerusalem, for the name of the Lord 
Jesus." * It was the final victory of his faith over the 
persuasions of his friends, and that too in the midst 
of the perplexities that were raised by the conflict of 
revelations. It is very likely that St. Paul could not 
have explained it all ; but he knew, in his own con- 
sciousness, that God was guiding him, and that he 
was bound to follow this inner light, and so he shut 
his ears to all other voices, and went on in the way 
wherein the Spirit was leading him. Let them say 
what they would, he was bound in the spirit to go 
unto Jerusalem. 

IV. 

In order to include all the elements in the experi- 
ence of St. Paul, we need to look forward to the issue 
of liis journey to Jerusalem. In a small view of things, 
it would be called disastrous. His ministry in Asia 
and in Macedonia was interrupted. So far as we 
know, he never went back to the scenes of his earlier 
labors. His life was never afterwards what it had 
been before. Those disciples who loved him so much 
never saw his face again, unless it may have been for 
a brief visit several years later. He did not succeed 
in conciliating the Jews, either by the liberal contribu- 
tions he brought for the poor saints, or by the respect 
which he showed for the temple and its worship. He 
was presently seized by the Jewish mob, and beaten 
in the courts of the temple, and was only saved from 
immediate death by the interference of the chief 
captain. Then followed the long imprisonment at 

1 Acts xxi. 10-14. 



206 THE BOUND LIFE. 

Caesarea, with its enforced idleness and its tedious 
delays. But how lofty the spirit of the Apostle dur- 
ing his confinement. How fine the opportunities he 
enjoyed of preaching the gospel, and how fearlessly 
he used them, so that the Roman governor trembled 
as his prisoner " reasoned of righteousness, temper- 
ance, and judgment to come." a Two years later, 
there were the addresses in the presence not only of 
the chief priests, and the principal men of the Jews, 
but of Festus, and king Agrippa, and Bernice, with 
the chief captains, and the principal men of Caesarea, 
in which St. Paul repeated the story of his conversion, 
and of his obedience to the heavenly vision, in such a 
way that those who were sitting in judgment upon him 
were convinced of his integrity, and were profoundly 
impressed by his words of truth and soberness. 2 

After this, there was the eventful voyage towards 
Rome ; the meeting with the brethren who came out of 
the city " as far as the Market of Appius, and the 
Three Taverns," to welcome the Apostle in his chains, 
and the preaching to all who resorted to him with all 
confidence ; the spread of the Christian Faith in 
Rome, until there were saints in Caesar's household ; 
and then, at last, as many suppose, the release ; the 
journey into Spain; the new churches planted in a 
fresh field ; the hasty visits to the scenes of his earlier 
labors ; and finally, after he had become " such an 
one as Paul the aged," the second imprisonment at 
Rome, and the glorious martyrdom." 3 

1 Acts xxiv. 25. 2 Acts xxv. and xxvi. 

3 Acts xxviii. Clement, 1st Ep. to Corinthians, i. v. Eusebius, 
11-22. Phil. iv. 22. 



THE BOUND LIFE. 207 

It is for a practical purpose that I have brought 
into one view this binding of the spirit of the great 
Apostle : his obedience to the divine monition, while 
he was ignorant of the final purpose of God in calling 
him to go to Jerusalem; his firmness in resisting 
those who would hold him back, and the results of 
the course upon which he entered. A grand spirit, 
this of St. Paul, — so simple in all the motives of 
action, so tender, so brave, so obedient unto the 
heavenly vision. His life was always a bound life. 
He looked for the indications of the will of God, and 
he was guided by them. He lived, through those 
years, " as seeing him who is invisible." 

This is the real life of faith. It is true, we are not 
inspired as the apostles were. We are liable to error 
in our judgments of what God would have us do, as 
we are in our judgments of other things. There have 
been those who, in following the supposed leadings 
of the Spirit, have given themselves up to the follies 
and crimes of fanaticism. The man of faith is respon- 
sible for the use of his judgment and reason. We 
cannot guard ourselves too carefully against error 
and folly. 

But for all that it remains true, that our whole life 
is to be a life of faith. The best security against the 
dangers of fanaticism is to be found in the simplicity 
of our faith, and a consistent use of our intelligence. 
When vanity or ambition insinuate themselves into 
our minds we lose the guidance of the Spirit of God. 
But the Christian who inquires in the honesty of his 
heart what the Lord would have him do, need not 
remain in doubt. God is so near, spiritual powers 



208 THE BOUND LIFE. 

are so real, the necessities of God's children are so 
great, that they will be guided in the way of their 
duty. 

This is a truth that we should make very practical. 
We need the strength and confidence it gives us. We 
need also the peace and quietness it gives us. We 
need to cherish that sense of dependence on God as 
the only Guide in life, that comes from the habit of 
looking for His direction in every event of our lives. 
The life of a true disciple is a " bound life!' because it 
is a life of simple faith and obedience ; a faith that 
endures through times of darkness and adversity; an 
obedience which no power even of human affection 
can hinder. God will certainly lead us, if we seek 
His direction ; and though we do not know the things 
that shall befall us, or the windings of the way over 
which He is guiding us, yet, if we are content to 
give ourselves up to His direction, He will bring us 
safely home at last, and " the sufferings of this pres- 
ent time are not worthy to be compared with the 
glory which shall be revealed to us-ward." * 

1 Romans viii. 18. 



XIII. 

THE SPIRIT OF ADOPTION. 



14 



XIII. 

THE SPIRIT OF ADOPTION. 

For ye received not the spirit of bondage again unto fear ; 
but ye received the spirit of adoptiofi, whereby we cry, Abba, 
Father. Romans viii. 15. 

THERE is only one subject in this text, and that is 
the spirit of adoption, what it is and what it leads to. 
The Apostle is speaking of believers as " the sons of 
God," who are guided in their lives by the Spirit of 
God, — that Spirit that " beareth witness with our spirit 
that we are children of God ; and if children, then 
heirs ; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ." 1 
The very near and intimate relation of believers to the 
Father is that of children by adoption, so that, as true 
believers, we have " the spirit of adoption." 

I. 

How then, first of all, shall we define the spirit of 
adoption? 

The text teaches that it is not the spirit of bondage 
unto fear. It is in all respects contrary to that. 
The Apostle teaches that it is the duty of those who 
are led by the Spirit of God to live, not according to 
the flesh, but according to the Spirit. Paul makes a 
great deal of this new spiritual life. It is not simply 

1 Romans viii. 14-17. 



212 THE SPIRIT OF ADOPTION. 

an improvement of the common life. It is new. Its 
beginning is in the work of God's Spirit, and it follows 
new motives and principles. Those who are Chris- 
tians are to follow Christ. But why? Is it because 
they must, because they will lose their souls if 
they do not? That he calls " the spirit of bondage 
unto fear, " and he says that belongs to those who 
have not become the children of God. But the 
Christian has the spirit of adoption, instead of the 
spirit of fear. He places these two, " the spirit of 
bondage unto fear " and " the spirit of adoption," 
over against each other. One is an outward motive ; 
the other is an affection. One is from a selfish de- 
sire ; the other is unselfish. One is a constraint ; the 
other is rooted in character. The person who is not 
a Christian cannot have the spirit of adoption. One 
who is a Christian will not allow himself to follow the 
spirit of bondage unto fear. 

It is important to emphasize this contrast because 
those who are not living the new life sometimes speak 
of Christians as under bondage, and of themselves as 
free from the yoke. They think of the religious life 
as perhaps an obligation, but as a constraint to be 
avoided as long as it is safe. But those who have 
entered upon the new life think of it as a deliverance 
from the bondage of sin, and the entrance into the 
freedom wherewith Christ maketh His children free. 1 

This spirit of adoption is positive not negative. It 
is not after the manner of those who are always say- 
ing, a Thou shalt not.'' The new spirit raises us 
above the old desires and ways of life. It is a new 

1 Galatians v. I. 



THE SPIRIT OF ADOPTION. 213 

affection. It leads, but it does not compel. It is a 
new enthusiasm. It is spontaneous and free. It is 
the natural result of the new relation to God. Our 
Saviour said to His disciples: " No longer do I call 
you servants ; for the servant knoweth not what his 
Lord doeth ; but I have called you friends ; for all 
things that I heard from my Father, I have made 
known unto you." 2 This was the foundation of the 
new society which Jesus came to establish, — this new 
and intimate relation between His disciples and Him- 
self. If any one really understood the spirit of this new 
society, it was the apostle John, " the disciple whom 
Jesus loved." In his first epistle he said, " Behold 
what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon 
us, that we should be called children of God." 2 
This is the teaching of St. Paul, in the eighth of 
Romans : " For as many as are led by the Spirit of 
God, these are sons of God." 3 We become the true 
children of God when we are led by His Spirit. 

We are God's children not by birth but by adoption. 
A child who has been adopted has very much to be 
thankful for. If he has the true spirit of adoption, his 
gratitude will lead to a love equal to that of one who 
is born into the family. This is what St. Paul means 
when he says, " Ye have not received the spirit of 
bondage again unto fear, but ye have received the 
spirit of adoption." That is the motive for a true 
disciple, — the gratitude of one who has been taken 
from the darkness and condemnation of sin, and 
adopted into the family of God, and made an heif of 
God and a joint heir with Christ. Paul tells us what 

1 John xv. 15. 2 1 John iii. 1. 3 Rom. viii. 14. 



214 THE SPIRIT OF ADOPTION. 

the child by adoption is made heir to : " The glory 
that shall be revealed." 1 No Christian needs to 
be told how great this is. The humblest Christian 
on this earth is heir to a blessing that is infinitely 
greater than he would have if the riches of the world 
were given to him. So that this adoption is the 
motive for his life of devotion and of service. He 
has no need to go back to the spirit of bondage unto 
fear. His life is the expression of gratitude and love 
for the infinite gift of God. 

The spirit of adoption, according to the text, is the 
spirit that leads us to cry Abba, Father. The spirit 
of adoption is the spirit which inclines us to apply 
this personal, endearing name to God : Abba, the 
Father, or as Luther renders it, Dear Father. Of 
course it does not mean, simply, that we use the 
name but that we have the feeling that leads us natu- 
rally, spontaneously, to think and speak of God as our 
Father. Do you not see how differently a man will 
think of God, who knows Him only as the Creator of 
the world, or the Power who rules the world, — the 
" Power that makes for righteousness," as Matthew 
Arnold used to say, — from one who knows Him as 
his dear Father, who has made him a child by 
adoption? 

II. 

We are next to inquire how the spirit of adoption 
will show itself in our life in this world. 

i. First of all, one who has the spirit of adoption, 
whereby we cry Abba, Father, will certainly think and 

1 Romans viii. 18. 



THE SPIRIT OF ADOPTION. 21 5 

speak of God as a real Being, with all personal affec- 
tions and attributes. His affection will make God 
very real to him. The God of the true disciple is 
much more than the God of the philosopher. The 
disciple will not think of his Father as a mere force 
or power that keeps the world in order, but he will 
think of Him as one who knows him, and loves him, and 
takes care of him as a father takes care of his child. 
This is the difference between one who has the spirit 
of adoption, and one who lives in the spirit of bondage 
unto fear. David said, — 

" As the hart panteth after the water brooks, 
So panteth my soul after thee, O God. 
My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God ; 
When shall I come and appear before God ? " * 

Like this are the words in the sixty-third Psalm : — 

" O God, thou art my God ; early will I seek thee : 
My soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee, 
In a dry and weary land, where no water is." 2 

In the seventeenth Psalm we read, — 

" As for me, I shall behold thy face in righteousness : 
I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness." 8 

Such addresses to God abound in the Psalms. We 
have nothing in the Bible that goes beyond them, un- 
less it be the prayers of our Saviour. Not long ago, 
a man said: "I worship God as the Creator; that is 
as far as I go." It is plain that such a man has not 
entered into the spirit of adoption. His cry will be: 
" Almighty and Everlasting God : O thou Creator of 
the world." You perceive how far away that is. A 

1 Ps. xlii. 1-2. ' z Ps. lxiii. i 3 Ps. xvii. 15. 



2l6 THE SPIRIT OF ADOPTION. 

child of God will call Him Father naturally, and will 
think of Him as near. But one who has the spirit of 
bondage unto fear does not want to come near to 
God. He would be glad if God would not come near 
to him. He will be quite content if God will leave 
him to go his own way. But, oh, how far that is 
from the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry Abba, 
Father. 

2. In the next place, one who has the spirit of 
adoption will ask God for the things that he needs. It 
would be very strange if a child who loved and 
trusted his father did not ask him for the things he 
desired. If one has adopted a child and shown his 
love in caring for him, he will be especially pleased 
with whatever shows that the child has confidence in 
him. To ask for favors is as natural for a true child 
as to breathe. 

So that if God is our Father we shall pray. If we 
cannot pray with the assurance that God will answer 
our prayers in His wisdom and love, then God is 
not really our Father. The two truths meet. If God 
is our Father, He will have a fatherly interest in us, 
and in our requests ; and if we have the true filial 
spirit we shall desire to ask for such things as we 
need. 

In the light of this intimate relation between God 
and His children by adoption, the philosophical objec- 
tions to prayer disappear. Those objections rest 
upon certain views of the laws of nature which leave 
no room for God's providence. It is said that the 
Ruler of the world cannot consistently interfere with 
the laws of nature which He has established: that 



THE SPIRIT OF ADOPTION. 2\J 

rain comes from natural causes ; that the issue of 
battles depends on the skill and courage of generals 
and soldiers ; that the victory will be on the side of 
the heaviest battalions, and of the best strategy ; that 
it is in vain to ask God to send rain in a time of 
drought, or to check the course of a fever, or to give 
the victory to a just cause in a military campaign. 
In a word, it is said that the Creator is an indifferent 
Spectator of the contests that go on between justice 
and injustice, between right and wrong, and that 
He will never interfere with the regular working of 
the vast mechanism of the universe. 

That depends, of course, upon what sort of a Being 
God is, and upon what purpose the created universe 
is designed to serve. If God is only the God of 
nature, and if nature is an end in itself, then assuredly 
God will not interfere with the working of the great 
machine. But, if God is the Almighty Father, and 
if He has made the world for spiritual beings, and 
has determined that all things shall work together for 
their good, and if the laws of nature are only the 
expression of His purposes, then it is the most nat- 
ural thing in the world for the Father to hasten the 
coming of the showers, that His children may 
have bread ; or to guide the physician in the use of 
remedies that will help the sick to recover; or to 
send a tempest to destroy the Spanish Armada, in 
answer to the prayers of His people, who asked Him 
to protect them from their enemies. If God is a 
Spirit, and if He has made us in His image, and 
if the powers of this world are the instruments 
which He uses to secure the development of His 



2l8 THE SPIRIT OF ADOPTION. 

children, then He will be likely to be moved — just 
as a wise and kind father is always moved — by their 
requests. 

The whole tone and spirit of religion will depend 
upon our idea of God. Those who think of Him as 
only the God of law and retribution must needs con- 
tinue in the spirit of bondage unto fear ; while those 
who think of Him as the God of love, who cares even 
for the sparrows, and who cares much more for us, 
who hath " no pleasure in the death of the wicked, 
but that the wicked turn from his way and live," 1 — 
these will have the spirit of adoption, and will natu- 
rally say Abba, Father. If God were only the God 
of nature there would not be any place for prayer ; 
but since God is revealed as a kind and gracious 
Father, we may be sure He will watch over us with a 
Father's love and care, and will bend His ear to our 
requests. Having given His Son to redeem us, He 
will, with Him, give whatever things will help us 
towards the way of salvation. 

One who has the spirit of adoption will pray habit- 
ually. He will desire to be in communion with God. 
Mere selfishness will lead one to pray when he is in 
danger, but the spirit of adoption will lead one to 
enter into his closet, and when he has shut the door, 
to pray unto the Father, who seeth in secret. 2 The 
pious Psalmist said, " Evening, morning, and at noon 
will I pray," 3 and the Apostle said, " Pray without 
ceasing ; in everything give thanks," 4 and our Lord 
Himself taught that we " ought always to pray and 

1 Ezek. xxxiii. n. 3 Ps. lv. 17. 

? Mat. vi. 6. 4 1 Thes. v. 17. 



THE SPIRIT OF ADOPTION. 2IO, 

not to faint." 1 An earnest disciple will seek above 
all things to live near to God. He will not be satis- 
fied to come now and then into the presence cham- 
ber. His love will draw him into sympathy with the 
Master. He will try to free himself from the things 
that displease Him, and to gain the things that will 
secure His approval. The more we have of love for 
God, the more earnestly we shall seek to walk worthy 
of our vocation. 

3. In the next place, one who has the spirit of adop- 
tion will try to do the will of God. In his prayers he 
will say, " not my will but thine be done." 2 His love 
for the Father will help him in submitting to God's 
providences. If we think of sorrow as a punishment, 
our hearts will sink within us. But we gain peace 
and hope from the truth that God is dealing with us 
as with sons, and that all His chastisements have a 
merciful purpose. 

So our love for God will find expression in acts of 
service. It is the love of God's own children that in- 
spires all true Christian benevolence. The spirit of 
bondage unto fear has power to secure an outward 
obedience. It has been sufficient to make multitudes 
of men very scrupulous in respect to the forms and 
ceremonies of religion. It has kept great multitudes 
of people under the power of a priesthood, and has led 
to the regular performance of pagan rites age after age. 
It is easy to drop into the bondage of fear, and to do 
our duty because we must. But the gratitude of one 
who is a child of God, gives a value to our religious 
acts which is far above that of the service itself. 

1 Luke xviii. 1. 2 Mat. xxvi. 39. 



220 THE SPIRIT OF ADOPTION. 

As soon as we realize that we can do something 
which our Lord will accept as a token of our love we 
shall be swift to do it. After all needful concessions 
have been made in respect to the imperfections of 
Christians, it remains true, that through all these 
eighteen centuries of Christian history there has been 
no other power over men so efficient for good as the 
power of Christian love. How many thousands have 
delighted to spend their lives in the service of Christ. 
How wonderful the enterprises of Christian benevo- 
lence. How many myriads have sealed their testi- 
mony with their blood. 

" The glorious company of the apostles praise Thee, 
The noble army of martyrs praise Thee, 
The holy Church throughout all the world doth 
acknowledge Thee." 

4. The spirit of Adoption leads to a life of faith and 
trust. This faith reveals God to those who love Him. 
It brings spiritual things near. Knowledge cannot 
do that. The wisdom of this world cannot compre- 
hend God, for " the world through its wisdom knew 
not God." 1 And yet, He reveals Himself to the 
humble and contrite soul. These deepest things are 
spiritually discerned, and faith brings us into commun- 
ion with the Father, and with His son Jesus Christ. 

This faith which comes with the spirit of adoption, 
also leads us to trust the future in the hands of our 
Father. We cannot see our way before us. " We 
walk by faith not by sight." 2 God gives us our 
bread day by day, and He gives His grace only when 
we need it. There are many times when we cannot 

1 1 Cor. i. 21. 2 2 Cor. v. 7. 



THE SPIRIT OF ADOPTION, 221 

see our way before us, and when all we can do is to 
commit ourselves to the care of the All-Father, not 
knowing what a day may bring forth. It is the spirit 
of a true believer to trust when he cannot see, saying, 
I am in my Father's hands, and He will not do me 
any real harm. 

5. Last of all, the spirit of adoption gives strength 
and confidence to the disciple. " If God be for us, 
who can be against us." 1 We can do all things 
through him who strengtheneth us. 2 Our faith en- 
ables us to take the measure of the unseen powers 
that are enlisted on the side of spiritual religion. We 
know that " they that be for us are more than they 
that be against us." 3 Have we not been redeemed 
with the blood of Christ? All the worth of the atone- 
ment strengthens our confidence that the work of 
God in the world will go forward. In the very chap- 
ter which contains the text, we are led to consider 
some of the deep mysteries in the counsels of God. 
We have been " chosen in Christ before the founda- 
tion of the world." 4 " For whom he foreknew, he also 
foreordained to be conformed to the image of His 
Son, that He might be the first-born among many 
brethren : and whom he foreordained, them he also 
called ; and whom he called, them he also justified ; and 
whom he justified, them he also glorified. What then 
shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who 
is against us ? " 5 

Dr. Storrs, in one of his magnificent missionary 

1 Rom. viii. 31. 3 2 Kings vi. 16. 

2 Phil. iv. 13. 4 Eph. i. 4. 

5 Rom. viii. 29-31. 



222 THE SPIRIT OF ADOPTION. 

addresses, spoke of the early Christians facing the 
Roman Empire, " putting Scriptures against swords : 
putting narratives and letters against marshalled le- 
gions ; putting oral and sacramental teaching against 
the fiercest and haughtiest power the world had 
known. But by their work they changed the course 
of history, and changed the face of the earth." The 
foundations of the Christendom of to-day " were 
laid in dust and blood by the faith and fortitude, and 
heroic consecration of those unnamed Christian mar- 
tyrs and teachers of the earliest time. Men might 
laugh at it then, but he who laughs at it now might 
as well laugh at the shining constellations in the 
heavens." 

It sometimes seems to us too much to believe, and 
yet it is the most certain of facts, that the people of 
God, redeemed, justified, their names written in the 
Book of Life, going forth in faith, to do the work of 
God in the world, have behind them the power of 
God and angels. They are able to win souls. They 
are able to overcome scepticism. They are able to 
bring the world to Christ. 

If these things are so, let us no longer consent to 
walk in bondage to fear. Let us rather live in the 
spirit of adoption, coming so near to our Father that 
we may always claim His promises, and may be 
strengthened by His Spirit. How great the work 
that lies close to us. How much greater the work in 
the world. But our Lord has said, " If ye abide in 
me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye 
will, and it shall be done unto you." * 

1 St. John xv. 7. 



XIV. 

MEN AND SPARROWS. 



XIV. 
MEN AND SPARROWS. 

Fear not, therefore: ye are of more value than many 
sparrows. 

St. Matthew x. 31. 

OUR Lord has many sayings in respect to value, to 
profit and loss, to business and trade. He teaches us 
to compare things as to their real worth, and shows 
us how God estimates them. " How much is a man 
better than a sheep," x He says. " Behold the birds 
of the heaven . . . your Heavenly Father feedeth 
them. Are ye not of much more value than they?" 2 
" Consider the lilies : ... if God doth so clothe the 
grass of the field, .which to-day is, and to-morrow is 
cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe 
you? " 3 " Consider the ravens . . . God feedeth them : 
of how much more value are ye than the birds." 4 
He teaches us that we are likely to neglect things of 
greater value for things of less value. " Is not the 
life more than the food, and the body than the rai- 
ment? " 6 Ye should not, therefore, make it the great 
question of life : " What shall we eat? or, What shall 
we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed." 6 But 

1 St. Matthew xii. 12. 4 St. Luke xii. 24. 

2 St. Matthew vi. 26. 5 St. Matthew vi. 25. 

3 St. Matthew vi. 30. 6 St. Matthew vi. 31-33. 

15 



226 MEN AND SPARROWS. 

rather, we should " Seek first His kingdom and His 
righteousness, and all these things shall be added 
unto " us. * He warns us against bad investments. 
" Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth 
where motn and rust doth consume and where thieves 
break through and steal : but lay up for yourselves 
treasures in heaven." 2 

He places the spiritual over against the material 
when He inquires : " What doth it profit a man, to 
gain the whole world, and forfeit his life ? For what 
should a man give in exchange for his life ? " 3 

The Saviour was an admirer of nature. He spoke 
of the beauty of the flowers, which are arrayed as not 
even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed. He 
spoke parables of fig trees, of the mustard seed, of 
the wheat and the tares. He knew how to discern 
the face of the sky, but in His view, man was more 
than all these, so that He went about doing good to 
men, — to all sorts and conditions of men, to poor 
men, and ignorant men, and sinful men, because they 
were men, and men were of more value in His sight 
than all other things. 

But why is a man of more value than many spar- 
rows? Why did the Divine Teacher continually 
place man above other beings on the earth? What 
are the reasons why our holy religion gives to man a 
place so much higher than other religions assign him ? 
Is man of more value than the sparrows because he 
is larger? Take a thousand sparrows, or a million, 
and do they come any nearer an equality with man 

* St. Matthew vi. 33. 2 St. Matthew vi. 19-20. 

3 St. Mark viii. 36. 



MEN AND SPARROWS. 227 

than one sparrow? Take the largest animal that 
lives, and is not a man of more value than that ani- 
mal? Take the most intelligent, and the most useful 
animals, and do they come any nearer in value to 
man? Compare with these a little child of a few 
weeks old : watch the first gleam of intelligence, the 
first smile, the first look of interest, and affection. 
Is not that little child of more value than many spar- 
rows? Go to the last little grave that has been made 
in the cemetery, and see the flowers that have been 
left there by loving hands. Ask the mother how 
much that little one was worth to her. Bring her 
presents to make up her loss. Bring her singing 
birds, bring her jewels and gold, bring her what you 
will, and would she not give it all, would she not give 
all the world, if she could call back the little one 
which God has taken? Do not the Scriptures teach 
us that God cares for these little ones, cares, indeed, 
for all the children of men, as He does not care for 
any of the other creatures which He has made on 
this earth? 

I. 

I suppose men are of more value than sparrows on 
account of their origin. God made man after His own 
likeness, so that he is continually spoken of as a child 
of God, and as such, fitted to enter into some com- 
panionship with God. It is not certain that we un- 
derstand fully the method by which God made man. 
It may be that the processes of evolution have had 
something to do in the formation of the physical, and 
even the intellectual nature of man. God accom- 



228 MEN AND SPARROWS. 

plishes some of His greatest works by processes of 
growth and unfolding. But it is no less the work of 
God because it is an evolution. The beginning is 
certainly from God, and He directs the development 
of those germs of life and power which He had ori- 
ginated. So that it is still true that " God created man 
in His own image, in the image of God created He 
him ; male and female created He them." 1 God 
designed man to " have dominion over the fish of 
the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the 
cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping 
thing that creepeth upon the earth." 2 This account 
of the origin of man, as a partaker of the divine na- 
ture, and the destined ruler of the world, is wrought 
into the very structure of the Bible. The lower ani- 
mal tribes are spoken of as separate from man, — 
made according to a different pattern, and for a 
different end. The Psalms, for example, connect 
the human race not with animals, but with angels. 

" Thou hast made him but little lower than the angels, [the 

Elohim] 
And crownest him with glory and honor. 
Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of Thy 

hands ; 
Thou hast put all things under his feet : 
All sheep and oxen : 
Yea and the beasts of the field ; 
The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, 
And whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas. 
O Lord, our Lord, 
How excellent is Thy name in all the earth." 8 

1 Gen. i. 27. 2 Gen. i. 26. 

3 Psalm viii. 5-9. 



MEN AND SPARROWS. 229 

The author of Ecclesiastes says : " Behold, this 
only have I found, that God made man upright; but 
they have sought out many inventions." 1 St. Paul tells 
us that " Man is the image and glory of God," 2 that he 
was made " a living soul ; " 3 and St. James says plainly 
that men " are made after the likeness of God." 4 These 
statements from the Older Scriptures, and from the 
latest books, are entirely consistent with each other. 
They all teach that the Creator has placed something 
of His own honor upon man, and that He cares for him 
as He does not care for the lower creatures. 

II. 

In the second place, man is of more value than the 
animals by reason of his capacities. By these, he is 
placed over against nature, as a being not only intelli- 
gent, but also free and responsible. His rank de- 
pends not upon his lower nature, which he shares 
with the brutes, but upon those powers which dis- 
criminate him from them. It is idle to try to deter- 
mine his rank by a study of his bodily structure 
alone. Comparative anatomy may teach some things 
concerning man's place in the world, but the science 
of mind will teach a great deal more. 

One test of value is use. What is a thing good for? 
Another test is growth. Will the thing you have 
become more than it is? One tool is of more value 
than another because it answers a better purpose. 
But the most useful tool does not grow. If you find 
growth, there is hope of improvement. The seed 

1 Eccl. vii. 29. 3 1 Cor. xv. 45. 

2 1 Cor. xi. 7. 4 St. James iii. 9. 



230 MEN AND SPARROWS. 

will become a tree. The little sparrow in the nest 
will grow to be a bird of flight and of song. Yet it 
can be only a sparrow. It cannot become an eagle, 
or an angel. Its growth is limited by the law of its 
nature. The little child is of more value than many 
sparrows because it can learn, and feel, and act in a 
free way. It has very little knowledge now, but it is 
able to gain knowledge. We do not send sparrows 
to school. I think it is Mr. Darwin who says that 
the songs of birds are taught them by older birds ; 
but it is more likely that every bird has an aptitude 
for its own song. If birds can learn, it is only a few 
things. We admire the songs they give us, but how 
limited these are in comparison with a grand anthem, 
or an oratorio. They are builders indeed, after a 
very curious fashion, but who would compare the 
nests that sparrows build, with the palaces and cathe- 
drals that men have built? If some one bird, out of 
all the birds in the world, finds out a new way of pro- 
tecting its nest in a difficult place, it is a great wonder 
to us, because we do not expect birds to invent any- 
thing, but how many thousands of men are putting 
their ideas into machines every year. The Patent 
Office is not for sparrows, but for men. Instinct 
works with exceeding accuracy, but it lacks the capa- 
city for progress. The man who can make a chair, 
or build a house, or invent an engine, or calculate an 
eclipse, or measure the distances of the stars, and trace 
their revolutions, — is not he of more value than 
many sparrows? 

Still more plainly do the sensibilities of me7i show 
how great they are. For the powers of feeling are 



MEN AND SPARROWS. 23 1 

the deepest and most central of all our powers. 
People are apt to overestimate the sensibilities of 
the lower creatures. Some appear to think that the 
attachment of an animal for its young is like that of 
a mother for her child ; and that animals suffer as 
men do when they are wounded, or when they die. 
But there is good reason for the opinion that animals 
differ from men as much in the capacity for suffering, 
and in the strength of their attachments, as in the 
capacity for knowledge. It is true that certain kinds 
of birds are paired for life, and that they show a 
degree of attachment for each other. Yet Mr. Dar- 
win, the eminent naturalist, has collected a large 
number of facts which prove that if one bird of a 
pair be shot, the survivor finds a new mate within 
a few hours. He tells us that a gentleman in Eng- 
land was at much pains to test this matter. He shot 
a bird belonging to a nest near his house. The sur- 
viving bird found a new mate directly. Again he 
shot one of the birds, and as often as the loss was 
made up he repeated the experiment, until he had 
killed thirty-five birds belonging to that nest, — some- 
times the male, sometimes the female, — yet in each 
instance the loss was made up within a day or two, 
and a brood of young birds was reared from the 
nest. So very slight are the attachments that spar- 
rows have ; so easily are they comforted in their 
bereavements. 1 

It takes a great nature to be capable of a great sor- 
row. The grief of King David for the death of his 
son Absalom, the profound sadness that is ex- 
1 Darwin's Descent of Man, vol. ii. pp. 99-102. 



232 MEN AND SPARROWS. 

pressed in the portraits of the poet Dante, the ter- 
rible energy of thought and of speech in King Lear, 
wrenching his whole being, convulsing his soul from 
its depths, — this terrible energy of passion sug- 
gests to us the capacity for suffering which a human 
being possesses. The remorse of Lady Macbeth, as, 
in her sleep, she sighs and moans on account of spots 
of blood on her hands, — visible to no eyes but her 
own, — and exclaims : " Here 's the smell of blood 
still," ' reveals a power of suffering which suggests 
the meaning of those figurative expressions by which 
the Scriptures set forth the miseries of lost souls. 

How significant, also, are those human sympathies 
that are born with us, and cherished by the whole 
influence of our Christian Faith, by which, notwith- 
standing the roughness and selfishness of the world, 
our joys are multiplied, and our sorrows are divided. 
No sorrow, or loss, or pain, comes to any of us that 
does not touch the hearts of those about us. We 
even take on our feeling the wants of those we have 
never seen or known. The suffering of an unknown 
man touches our hearts. Thus all the world is kin. 
Nature teaches us to " bear one another's burdens." 
A famine in India or in China stirs our sympathies. 
The sad state of the heathen, in their darkness and 
their guilt, starts a missionary movement that will 
not spend itself until the light of truth has been car- 
ried to all the families of the earth. 

It is sometimes said that our experiences in life 
give more light as to our capacity for sorrow than 
for joy. Our literature is fuller in its delineation of 

1 Macbeth, Act v. Scene i. 



MEN AND SPARROWS. 233 

human grief than of human happiness, and in this it 
is true to experience. Still, our affections are the 
sources of true and permanent joy. Our moral na- 
ture, so far as it is uncorrupted, fits us for happiness. 
These Christian homes are full of experiences which 
make them suggestions of the heavenly home. And, 
beyond the circles that are illumined by the spirit of 
religion, there are larger circles where the influence 
of Christianity is felt, in which pure and deep affec- 
tions, and high moral ends of life, show how much 
the natural man is capable of. The very fact that we 
are able to form conceptions of Heaven, which differ 
from any, even the highest of our experiences, indi- 
cates that we are made for a higher life than we are 
yet enjoying ; for, 

" Not in entire forgetfulness, 
And not in utter nakedness, 
But trailing clouds of glory do we come, 
From God who is our home." 1 

We need to connect this capacity for joy and sor- 
row with the future life. The earthly home is not 
secure. Sometimes its brightest light dies away. 
Yet how happy we are with our families and our 
friends about us. How much happier we might be 
if there were no pain, or sickness, or apprehension 
of evil, if we were never disappointed or bereaved. 
What a blessed thing it would be if we could call 
back the friends who have departed, — the loved and 
unforgotten, — and if they could continue with us, 
without fear of change, while the blessed years should 
come and go, especially if we could be cured of our 

1 Wordsworth's Ode, Intimations of Immortality. 



234 MEN AND SPARROWS. 

faults, and they could be cured of theirs, so that there 
should never be the shadow of a spot upon any of us. 
Yet even this would not be Heaven. For the glory of 
God is the light of it. I shall "be satisfied when I 
awake with Thy likeness." 1 

On the other hand, we do not find that all are liv- 
ing good lives. There are too many who are giving 
themselves up to evil. They are becoming worse 
instead of better. When the end comes to them, 
they look back over their lives with little satisfaction. 
They go out of the world lamenting their failure. 
The consequences of sin will follow them. Remorse 
of conscience cannot be avoided. All these experi- 
ences go to make up the condition of a lost soul: 
unsatisfied, self-condemned, without the presence and 
favor of God, with no preparation for His Kingdom. 
So very great are our capacities for joy, or for sorrow. 

III. 

In the third place, the superior worth and dignity 
of man will appear from what the Bible teaches con- 
cerning the work of Redemption. 

From the beginning God has dealt with him as a 
being capable of some fellowship with Himself. All 
the tribes and races of men have a share in His bless- 
ings. There are indications in all parts of the Old 
Testament that the true light was given not only to 
the children of Israel, but to many who did not 
belong to the chosen race. Melchisedec, king of 
Salem, priest of the Most High God ; Job in the 

1 Psalms xvii. 16. 



MEN AND SPARROWS. 235 

land of Uz ; Jethro, the priest of Midian ; Balaam, 
the son of Beor ; the Ninevites who repented at once 
at the preaching of Jonah, — all these go to show that 
the knowledge of the true God was very widely dif- 
fused in the early ages, and they indicate that God 
had a special care for all the nations of men. In the 
New Testament we have the Wise Men of the East 
coming to Bethlehem to bring royal gifts to the in- 
fant Redeemer. Christ teaches that the love and 
grace of God are for all the world. He " tasted 
death for every man." * He commanded His dis- 
ciples to " go into all the world, and preach the gos- 
pel to the whole creation." 2 And years after Jesus 
had ascended to heaven, St. Peter taught that " God 
is no respecter of persons : but in every nation he 
that feareth Him, and worketh righteousness, is ac- 
ceptable to Him." 3 How little we realize the meaning 
of the cross of Christ as a token of the value of man. 
God did not redeem at so great a price, a race that 
was of little account. He understood what man was 
capable of, and He saw that it was worth while to 
redeem him with the blood of the only begotten Son. 
The conditions of salvation also show the value 
which God places upon every individual of our race. 
The gospel is offered to man as man, — not to the 
wisest, or to the purest men, but to all men. There 
was a great contest in the early Church between the 
Jewish Christians and the Gentiles, concerning the 
conditions of salvation. The Jews insisted that it was 
necessary to keep the law of Moses ; but the apos- 

1 Heb. ii. 9. 2 St. Mark xvi. 15. 

3 Acts x. 35. 



236 MEN AND SPARROWS. 

ties taught that the gospel was free to all, whether 
Jews or Greeks, " barbarian, Scythian, bondman, or 
freeman." 1 For the least, and the weakest, has a 
power of endless life, and may become the com- 
panion of angels. The conditions are so simple and 
so easy that no one need be excluded. It is only to 
ask and receive ; to " come and take the water of life 
freely." " Come unto me, all ye that labor, and are 
heavy laden, and I will give you rest." 2 

What shall we say also of the priv ilege of adoption? 
The family of God is not complete, and so He be- 
stows His love upon us, and we are called the sons 
of God. " It is not yet made manifest what we shall 
be. But we know that when He shall appear we shall 
be like Him : for we shall see Him as He is." 3 What 
present evidence does He give us of our title to the 
blessings that follow this adoption? " The Spirit 
Himself beareth witness with our spirit that we are 
children of God." 4 He manifests Himself unto us 
as He does not unto the world. We have access to 
God in prayer, and we have answers to our prayers, 
which show that we are in communication with God. 
Our experiences in prayer are the fresh and constant 
proofs of the regard which God has for men. We 
may send our petitions before the highest throne, 
and the Son of God is our Orator there. 

I know we are told, in what President Porter called 
" the new gospel of despair," that God cares neither 
for the sparrows nor for us, and that it is absurd to ex- 
pect answers to our prayers. But this contradicts not 

1 Col. iii. 11. 3 1 John iii. 2. 

2 St. Matthew xi. 28. 4 Romans viii. 16. 



MEN AND SPARROWS. 237 

one statement only, but the whole tenor of the Bible, 
and discredits the most emphatic testimonies of the 
holiest men. Jesus said, " If ye abide in me, and my 
words abide in you, ask whatsoever ye will, and it 
shall be done unto you." 2 Is there anything more 
sublime than prayer? A little child may make its 
wishes known to God, and may call down blessings 
upon the world. Compared with this, what are the 
things that are done in the cabinets of nations? 
What stir, think you, is made in heaven by our 
business affairs, by the rise and fall of stocks, by 
the fortunes of empires? But you and I may send 
our prayers for our daily bread up through the eter- 
nal solitudes, and secure the help and grace we 
need. 

You see that humble Christian. He is not rich, 
or famous, or learned. But his name is written in 
heaven. Every day his voice is heard on high. The 
Spirit of God is guiding him. He may have little 
influence in this world, but he has power with God, 
and prevails. There is a mansion prepared for him 
in the Father's house. Every hour is bringing him 
nearer heaven. Soon he will tread the golden streets. 
You see him in prosperity, and he gives thanks to 
God. You see him in adversity: he is " sorrowful, 
yet always rejoicing ; poor, yet making many rich ; 
having nothing, yet possessing all things." 2 For 
him " to live is Christ, and to die is gain." Such is 
man, made in the image, and after the likeness of 
God. " How noble in reason ! How infinite in facul- 
ties ! In action, how like an angel ! In apprehension, 

1 St. John xv. 7. 2 2 Corinthians vi. 10. 



238 MEN AND SPARROWS. 

how like a god ! " * Such are the grand possibilities 
of those whom Christ has redeemed. 



1. If these things are so, let us have no fellowship 
with the pagan notion of the littleness of life. Man is 
not a part of nature, bound under an inexorable law. 
Nor is his life determined by a blind fatality. He is 
a free spirit, and may claim some kindred with the 
skies. He was made to rule the world. He may 
make every day great, every action important. The 
sparrows build their nests, and rear their young, and 
sing out their little life, and die, and make no sign. 
But has man nothing to do but to build his house, 
and provide for his family, and get on in the world ? 
Is that the whole of life, — to breathe, and sing, and 
die? No indeed, God has put too much of His honor 
upon us. He has paid too great a price for our re- 
demption. He knows us all by name. He numbers 
the hairs of our heads. He has graven us upon the 
palms of His hands. " He that spared not His own 
Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He 
not also with Him freely give us all things? " 2 

2. Nor should we say that any life is of necessity 
an ignoble life. The things in which we differ are the 
small things. Those we have in common are the 
great things, — the image of God, the love of Christ, 
the offer of eternal life. God has chosen the weak 
things of the world, and base things, and things that 
are despised. 3 So that we should never despise our 

1 Hamlet, Act ii. Scene 2. 2 Romans viii. 32. 

3 1 Corinthians i. 27-28. 



MEN AND SPARROWS. 239 

birthright because it seems to us less than others 
have. 

3. Nor should any one shrink from the work to 
which he is called, however great it may be. He who 
has given us this spiritual being, with faculties of 
thought, imagination, reason, and conscience, and 
who has formed the plan of our life, assigning to 
each man his mission, may well be trusted to open 
the way for us. A spiritual man, thus richly en- 
dowed, is competent for all things to which God will 
call him. We can do all things through Christ who 
strengtheneth us. Moses hesitated when he com- 
prehended the greatness of his mission, but his 
strength was always as his day. How many others 
have declined the work for which God designed them 
because it was so great. But all things are possible 
to him that believeth. The world has seldom the 
opportunity to know how much a single consecrated 
life can accomplish for the honor of God, and the 
relief of man's estate. 



XV. 

THE DANGER AND THE SAFETY OF 
YOUNG MEN. 



16 



XV. 

THE DANGER AND THE SAFETY OF 
YOUNG MEN. 

And the King said, Is the young man Absalom safe ? 

2 Samuel xviii. 29. 

THE court of King David was full of remarkable 
men, but no one of them had a more striking charac- 
ter than Absalom, his third son. In his person, he 
was the most beautiful young man of the nation. 
" From the sole of his foot, even to the crown of his 
head, there was no blemish in him." x He had also 
great abilities for business, for government, and for 
war. The influences at his father's court were fitted 
to develop all his powers. In that court Solomon 
acquired his unequalled wisdom. His father's life 
furnished an example, rarely excelled in history, of 
courage and vigor, of tender poetic grace, and of 
religious faith. 

But Absalom threw away his great opportunities. 
He gave himself up to ambition, to revenge, and in- 
trigue. He formed a conspiracy against his father, 
anticipating, in that far distant time, before the dawn 
of secular history, the arts of the modern political 
demagogue, and, when his plans were ripe, he raised 
the standard of rebellion, and usurped the throne. 

1 2 Samuel xiv. 25. 



244 THE DANGER AND SAFETY OF YOUNG MEN. 

The sacred historian has drawn a touching picture 
of the flight of the grand old king. " And David 
went up by the ascent of the Mount of Olives, and 
wept as he went up ; and he had his head covered, 
and went barefoot ; and all the people that were with 
him, covered every man his head, and they went up, 
weeping as they went up." 1 The outlines of the pic- 
ture are so distinctly drawn that we can almost see 
the great king of Israel, weeping, and barefoot, flee- 
ing from the city which his valor had conquered, and 
his munificence had adorned, followed by the small 
company of his faithful friends, looking back in sad- 
ness upon the homes they were leaving. It was the 
darkest day in Davids life, for his troubles before 
had come from his enemies, but now his own son, in 
whom his soul delighted, had risen against him. 

But the king had so strong a hold upon the hearts 
of his people, that they rallied in his defence, and 
tidings had just been brought, by two willing messen- 
gers, that the power of the rebellion had been com- 
pletely broken. This relieved his anxieties for his 
kingdom, and at once the feelings of the father came 
out in the inquiry, " Is the young man Absalom 
safe?" 

It was a natural question for the father to ask. He 
had said to the chief captains, "Deal gently for my 
sake with the young man, even with Absalom," 2 but 
he must have known how little such a charge was 
likely to avail at such a time. He knew that the 
crimes of his son had planted dangers in his path. 
Such a man is never safe. The rebellion against his 

1 2 Samuel xv. 30. 2 2 Samuel xviii. 5. 



THE DANGER AND SAFETY OF YOUNG MEN. 245 

father was the result of the murder of his brother 
years before ; and that murder came from the re- 
vengeful spirit which he had cherished, and that was 
connected with all the bad passions of an evil heart. 
It was not merely because he was encompassed by 
enemies, but because he had been a disobedient son, 
a disloyal subject, an unprincipled man ; a rebel 
against his father, and his king, and his God. He 
had been going on from sin to greater sin, and sin 
brings danger, and leads to ruin. There is no place 
of safety for such a man as Absalom. 

This suggests the inquiry, for the sake of which I 
have followed the history thus far, concerning the dan- 
gers of young men. When is a young man safe? 

I. 

I begin the answer by saying, that the dangers 
which threaten us from the outside are less than is 
commonly supposed. It is true we are in danger even 
from the operation of natural laws. If you walk over 
the edge of a precipice, you will be dashed to pieces. 
If you venture incautiously under an overhanging 
cliff, a falling stone may crush you. These natural 
laws have no element of mercy, and they expose us 
every day to destruction. In this view, the world 
seems bristling with dangers. 

We are exposed, also, to temptation, and the way 
of evil is a facile way. If you enfeeble your consti- 
tution by excess, you wake up the long train of 
diseases. If you commit crime, there is an officer 
watching for you at every corner. Yet these evils 



246 THE DANGER AND SAFETY OF YOUNG MEN. 

are not necessary. They cannot harm us except by 
our own fault. The careful man is in no danger of 
stumbling over the brink of a precipice. We can 
walk with safety amid a thousand pitfalls. Nor has 
temptation any power to compel us to go wrong. 
The officer of justice is not a terror to an innocent 
man. Words of calumny cannot blast his reputation, 
for he is 

" armed so strong in honesty, 
That they pass by him as the idle wind, 
Which he respects not." l 

The man who carefully regards the laws of nature is 
safe from the greatest number of physical dangers ; 
the man of established principles can resist tempta- 
tion ; and he who carefully regards the laws of justice 
and of truth, can walk unharmed among the officers 
of the law. He may sleep with a conscience void of 
offence, even as David slept, on the night after his 
flight from Absalom, of which he has written in one 
of the most beautiful of his Psalms : — 

" I laid me down and slept ; 
I awaked; for the Lord sustaineth me." 2 

The good king, lying down in the open field, under 
the stars, in a country swarming with enemies, slept 
as peacefully as he had done in his palace of cedar. 

Even the dangers which a good man cannot es- 
cape, — and there are some evils that are inevitable, 
— are blessings in disguise. He is safe even though he 
suffer. His principles are strengthened by resistance to 

1 Shakespeare Julius Caesar, Act iv. Scene 3. 2 Psalms iii. 5. 



THE DANGER AND SAFETY OF YOUNG MEN. 247 

temptation. His spiritual life is refined and deepened. 
Even death is gain to him. So that we are not to 
say, " Lo here, or Lo there," as though our chief dan- 
gers were from the outside. The kingdom of evil, or 
the kingdom of God, is within us. 1 

II. 

The real dangers of young men are from themselves. 
We can easily see why this is so. Every appetite 
and desire is liable to become excessive. The most 
innocent of them all may become the most destruc- 
tive. The appetite for food, which is designed to 
preserve life, may become so excessive as to destroy 
life. The craving for stimulant is very likely to lead 
to habits of intemperance, and intemperance destroys 
more lives than pestilence and war. These natural 
wants are all blind. They are continually crying 
give, give, yet to gratify them beyond the proper 
limit is to subject ourselves to a hopeless bondage. 
The vices which are holding the degraded in bondage 
have grown out of appetites and desires which, in 
their normal working, are innocent and useful. 

The desires and tastes that belong to our intellectual 
nature are subject to the same liabilities. The love of 
enjoyment, for example, is certainly in7iocetit. God 
made us, as He made the angels, for happiness and 
heaven. We cannot but desire that which pleases us. 
But what if a young man should seek pleasure as the 
chief object of life, and shun the duties which inter- 
fere with the present enjoyment? Will he not be 

1 St. Luke xvii. 21. 



248 THE DANGER AND SAFETY OF YOUNG MEN 

likely to develop the weakest and most worthless of 
characters, with no vigorous power to resist evil, and 
no preparation for the serious work of life? 

The love of wealth is a higher and a more healthful 
desire. It leads to habits of industry and economy. 
It fills our homes with comforts. It is adding to the 
national wealth. It is the motive to commercial en- 
terprise. It covers the land with cities, and whitens 
the sea with sails. It belts the continents with rail- 
ways, and brings to every hamlet the productions of 
the most distant zones. It leads men to develop the 
riches hidden in the earth, and to explore the depths 
of the sea. Take away the love of gain, and you 
take from civilized man a powerful motive to exer- 
tion, and you set society back towards barbarism. 
There are great nations that are throwing open their 
ports to a Christian civilization, through the influence 
of commerce. And yet, the Bible tells us that " the 
love of money is a root of all kinds of evil." l Why? 
Because it is carried to excess. Men are not con- 
tent to seek gain by fair means. Hence the various 
forms of deception and fraud. So soon as the love 
of gain becomes excessive it is perilous. There is 
danger from the ill will of those we injure, and from 
the laws we violate. There is still more danger of 
blunting our moral sensibilities, and hardening our 
hearts. And we are overshadowed, all of us, by the 
moral government of God, which threatens all in- 
justice with a punishment reaching far beyond the 
present life. 

Take, as another illustration, our self-respect. Each 

1 1 Tim. vi. 10. 



THE DANGER AND SAFETY OF YOUNG MEN. 249 

man is a separate person, with his own interests, and 
rights, and duties. God has crowned us with glory 
and honor. It is a man's duty to respect himself, to 
make the most of his powers, and to defend his lib- 
erty. But how easily self-respect becomes pride, and 
pride represses some of the finest tendencies in our 
nature. It becomes the great obstacle to humility, 
to repentance, to prayer. It holds many men back 
from the cross of Christ. It is the besetting sin of 
noble minds, and it may lead them to spiritual ruin 
as surely as appetite or passion. 

Or take, if you please, the love of the beautiful. 
This is a natural feeling. God, who gave us taste, 
has made the world beautiful, and heaven more beau- 
tiful, that our whole being may be refined by the 
highest forms of beauty. And yet, no one of our 
powers is more in need of control. The love of the 
beautiful is not a law to itself. The cities of Italy 
gave themselves up to the influence of fine art during 
the middle ages, until they lost the more robust and 
manly elements of character, and sunk into effeminate 
luxury. The ages that have seen the finest bloom of 
art have been barren of great achievements. Culti- 
vated men are going, in our time, from all lands, to 
study the works of art in Italy, but the people who 
dwell in the shadow of those palaces and cathedrals 
are not vigorous, or brave, or virtuous. It is noto- 
rious that some of those who have gained a very high 
reputation in literature have been persons of evil 
lives. The beautiful must be strictly subordinate to 
the good, and the true, or it leads to weakness and to 
sin. 



250 THE DANGER AND SAFETY OF YOUNG MEN. 

Now the point of these illustrations is this : Our 
natural and innocent tendencies are liable to abuse. 
The appetite for food may make us gluttons. The 
love of stimulants may make us drunkards. The 
love of pleasure may debauch us. The love of gain 
may make us misers, or criminals. Our self-respect, 
our love of liberty, our love for our friends and kin- 
dred, may lead us to spurn the invitations of our 
Redeemer. The love of beautiful things may over- 
shadow the higher elements of our nature, and lead 
us towards luxury and corruption. 

Is the young man safe ? Can he be, when every 
appetite may become a passion, every desire a lust; 
when every natural tendency may lead towards sin? 
You have stood on the shore of the sea, and watched 
the coming in of the waves. They seem to be mov- 
ing in one direction. But if you walk out into the 
water, you presently feel the undertow, which is hur- 
rying the water back towards the depths, and which 
is likely to sweep you from your footing, and drown 
you in the sea. That man must be strangely ignorant 
of his own nature, as well as of his fellow-men, who 
does not know that there is a treacherous undertow, 
which threatens us with ruin. 

A young man grows up in a Christian home, and 
appears to be a truthful and honest man. But that 
is only the surface, — the waves coming in beautifully 
upon the beach. Who knows what is going on in the 
heart of that youth, what influences may be under- 
mining his principles? Who can tell about the 
undertow? A confidential clerk at a bank maintains 
his integrity for years, but his social affections, his 



THE DANGER AND SAFETY OF YOUNG MEN. 25 1 

tastes, his personal ambitions lead him into extrav- 
agances. He uses the funds of the bank for his 
pleasures, or his speculations, or his vices ; and by 
and by the city is startled by the discovery of his 
crime, and he becomes a fugitive from justice, or is 
locked in a felon's cell. 

Another grows up in a home of culture and refine- 
ment, encompassed by the influence of his sisters, 
breathing, all the years of his childhood and youth, 
the atmosphere of love, trained by the most up- 
right of fathers in habits of integrity. His friends 
expect, with good reason, that his heart will always 
be the home of pure affections, that he will do honor 
to the family name, and will have a prosperous career. 
But watch the undertow. There may be the seeds of 
vice in his nature. There are slumbering passions. 
There are tendencies that lead towards ruin, — tenden- 
cies born of the very rank in life to which he belongs. 
Perhaps the wave will bear that young man high up 
on the beautiful shore. It may be the undertow will 
carry him out into the dark waters, and he will be 
lost. 

We see men only on the surface. But we do not 
see what are their secret thoughts and motives. Aye, 
what passions sometimes stir our own souls. How 
often there is envy, revenge, and hatred within us. 
Our Saviour knew what was in man when He said, 
" Out of the heart come forth evil thoughts, murders, 
adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, railings." * 
If any man be disposed to speak without compassion 
of those who have fallen, let him remember what 
1 St. Mark vii. 21. 



252 THE DANGER AND SAFETY OF YOUNG MEN. 

thoughts come up sometimes from the depths of his 
own nature, and consider what he might have done in 
an hour of weakness and of temptation. An hour of 
serious self-inspection will make us more charitable 
to those who have fallen. 



III. 

These are our perils. In view of such things as 
these, let us go back to the inquiry: When is a young 
man safe? And inasmuch as our chief dangers are 
from ourselves, it is plain that no outward protection 
can be of much avail. We are apt to charge our sins 
to circumstances : to evil companions, the wicked 
city, the bad world. But, if we are truly free, — and 
our own consciousness assures us that we are, — we 
cannot lay the blame upon any one but ourselves. 
Evil has no power over us except such as we give it. 
The spark will fall harmless if it does not find the 
tinder already prepared. That which is a strong 
temptation to one man does not tempt his neighbor. 
If we go to the root of the matter, temptation has 
just as much power over us as we give it, and no 
more. It is well to remove temptations from young 
men, so far as we can, but that will not make them 
safe. For the chief perils are such as they carry in 
their own hearts. If we can make the fountain pure, 
it will send forth pure waters even in a bad world. 
How, then, shall we reach the source of evil? That 
is the real question. 

The true answer is not far to seek. We have two 
classes of powers : the one lower, the other higher ; 



THE DANGER AND SAFETY OF YOUNG MEN. 253 

the one sensuous, the other rational. The lower 
powers do not limit themselves. Appetite is never 
satisfied. So it is with passion. So with the love of 
pleasure, of wealth, of honor, and power. It is in 
these unlimited tendencies that our danger lies. The 
ship is out upon the deep with its rich cargo, driven 
by the winds, ready for a successful voyage, — but it 
needs a rudder, and a pilot. The steam is up, and 
the locomotive is moving, but who is to regulate its 
motion? Man with his appetites and his passions is 
like that ship, — like that engine. Unless he can rule 
his desires and passions, the ship will be wrecked, 
the engine will only destroy. Is the young man 
safe? Never, until he is able to rule his own spirit. 
Surround him with outward restraints, and he will 
complain that you have taken away his liberty. 
Remove evil companions, and you only put the 
danger a little further away. 

But above these sensuous desires and passions we 
have, all of us, a higher nature. We have a con- 
science, which gives us the idea of right, and impels 
us to do the right. So that we are able to examine 
these impulses that come from our nature, and deter- 
mine how far it is right to gratify them. Every man 
has also a free will, by which he is able to control his 
passions. This higher nature was given to rule the 
lower, under the guidance of intelligence. When the 
spiritual powers control those that are sensuous, man 
is safe ; never till then. Whoever is following his 
impulses, his appetites, or his passions, his loves, 
or his hates, his hopes, or his fears simply, is in 
peril. For these are all blind. 



254 THE DANGER AND SAFETY OF YOUNG MEN. 

A young man begins to be safe when he learns to 
control his impulses, and his desires, according to 
a law of duty. If King David had carefully cultivated 
the conscience of his son when he was a child, and 
accustomed him to do the little things which every 
child does, from the sense of right which every child 
has, — if he had accustomed him to control his pas- 
sions, and to strengthen his moral nature by the habit 
of doing right, because it is right, he would have been 
preparing him for a virtuous life. The good man is 
the man who follows intelligently the monitions of 
his conscience. 

The safety of young men depends upon two things. 

(i) They must develop and cultivate their moral 
nature. They must form the habit of acting in view 
of moral considerations. They must make no com- 
promise with conscience, and hold no parley with sin. 
They must not permit themselves to balance the right 
against any considerations of inclination, or of inter- 
est. They must dare to do right though the heavens 
fall. If a man's virtue has its price, he has no virtue. 

We cannot destroy our appetites and our passions 
if we would. We ought not to do it if we could. 
These dangerous elements are the active forces in our 
nature. They are like the steam that drives the en- 
gine. A man's effective power depends, in great part, 
upon the strength of his sensuous nature. These pas- 
sions will be always active, watching their opportu- 
nity, and clamoring for gratification. It is for us to 
rule them, in the light of duty, according to the law 
of God. We must eat, but not too much. We must 
seek knowledge, and influence, and wealth, and power, 



THE DANGER AND SAFETY OF YOUNG MEN. 255 

yet we must so seek them as to use, and not abuse 
them. We must be temperate in eating, and in 
drinking; in working, and in playing; in our joys, 
and in the indulgence of our griefs ; temperate in 
all things ; temperate in our temperance, adding to 
temperance patience, and to patience godliness, and 
to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly 
kindness charity. 1 Practical religion consists in fol- 
lowing the sense of duty, doing justly, loving mercy, 
and walking humbly before God. 2 

But there is no permanent safety unless we follow 
the sense of duty honestly and fully. If a young 
man tries to do his duty to his fellow-men, while he 
neglects his duty to God, he will debauch his con- 
science. There are some who are living divided 
lives. They restrain their appetites, but they do not 
pray. They deal honestly with men, but not with 
God. They recognize their obligations to their 
neighbors, but they ignore their obligations to the 
Father in Heaven. They love their friends, but not 
their Saviour. They are dealing justly, perhaps, and 
loving mercy, but they are not walking humbly before 
God. 

How many young men confess that they know it is 
their duty to lead Christian lives ; and by neglecting 
this highest duty, they are hardening their hearts, 
and dulling their moral sensibilities. " Wherewithal 
shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed 
thereto according to thy word." 3 We have in the 
Holy Scriptures the guide for our lives. They reveal 

1 2 Peter i. 6-7. 2 Micah vi. 8. 

3 Psalms cxix. 9. 



256 THE DANGER AND SAFETY OF YOUNG MEN. 

more fully the path of duty to which our consciences 
are pointing us. The more carefully we study them, 
the more we shall know of a true life, and the more 
carefully we follow their teachings, the nearer we 
shall come to the highest type of manhood. 

(2) But this is only one part of the answer to the 
great question. We say, let a man follow his con- 
science. Let him follow the Bible. It will guide 
him in the way of eternal life. But is that enough ? 
Alas, we are weak and sinful, and passion is always 
moving us, and when we would do good, evil is pres- 
ent with us. If we have a Father in Heaven, who 
cares for us, will He leave us to fight the battle alone ? 
When we are so weak, and so sorely tempted, will 
He not lend us His aid? Must it not be that the 
Infinite Goodness and Love will seek and save the 
lost? The gospel of Jesus Christ is the help which 
God gives to man struggling to escape from the 
power of evil. First He sends the well-beloved Son, 
to remove the obstacles to our salvation. Then He 
sends the Holy Spirit, to renew our hearts, and to 
strengthen our best purposes. 

Is the young man safe, — even in this world ? Not 
until he rules himself. Not until he follows his con- 
science, and makes the Bible his rule of life. Is he 
safe then? By no means, for his strength is perfect 
weakness. He is not safe until the Almighty has put 
His arm about him and given him strength. With 
this divine help there is safety. Those whom the 
Lord has taken under His protection shall ■ never 
perish. Our salvation, therefore, depends partly 
upon ourselves, and partly upon our divine Friend. 



THE DANGER AND SAFETY OF YOUNG MEN. 257 

We shall be saved by following conscience, and 
trusting God. 

True religion is not fanaticism. It is not some- 
thing that comes to us without any agency of our 
own, like the dew and the rain. Religion is duty. 
And whoever tries to do his duty will find that he is 
weak and sinful, that he needs a Saviour's blood to 
cleanse him from guilt, and the spirit of God to form 
his heart anew. The invitation of the gospel is 
addressed to just this sense of need. " Come unto 
me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will 
give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn 
of me ; for I am meek and lowly of heart : and ye 
shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, 
and my burden is light." 1 

Would you, then, be safe, amid the storms of pas- 
sion, and the temptations of life? There is no safety 
for any one of us until he has made the promises of 
God his own, until he has Christ for his Saviour 
and his never-failing Friend. Away from Christ, no 
man is safe for an hour. Shall we not heed His 
gracious invitation, for He has loved us while we 
were yet sinners, 2 and, because He loved us, has 
come to seek and to save that which was lost. 3 

1 St. Matthew xi. 28-30. 2 Rom. v. 8. 

3 St. Luke xix. 10. 



17 



XVI. 

HEAVEN IN SYMPATHY WITH THE 
PENITENT. 



XVI. 

HEAVEN IN SYMPATHY WITH THE 
PENITENT. 

Likewise, I say unto you, There is joy in the presence of 
the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. 

St. Luke xv. io. 

This word, " likewise," connects this saying of our 
Lord with what had gone before. He was reasoning, 
as He often did, from things that are earthly to things 
that are heavenly. He was trying to show what is in 
the heart of God, by reminding men of what is in their 
own hearts. He would help them understand how 
God feels, by appealing to their own natural feelings. 
If He had not taught us to do this we should not 
have dared to do it, but inasmuch as Christ has taught 
us to reason from our natural feelings and moral in- 
stincts, to the feelings and moral instincts of God, we 
are bound to follow His leading. Let us be sure we 
do not go beyond His leading, and that we follow 
Him reverently and closely. 

The Pharisees and scribes had their own idea of 
God, and they complained because Jesus was receiv- 
ing sinners, and was eating with them. That com- 
plaint of theirs involved an idea of God which would 
leave no hope for sinful men. Towards the end of 
His ministry Jesus spoke three parables to change 



262 HEAVEN IN SYMPATHY WITH THE PENITENT. 

that old idea of God. These parables follow very- 
common lines of thought, but no one can tell how 
much we have learned from them of the relations we 
sustain to God, and He to us. 

Jesus says, a man who has a hundred sheep will 
care for all of them; but if any one of them should 
wander away and be lost, he would, for the time, care 
more for that sheep than for all the rest; and he 
would go after it, until he had found it ; and when he 
had found it he would bring it back again with joy. 

Or, if a person should lose a piece of money, he 
would seek for it very carefully, and when he had 
found it, he would have more joy over that coin, 
which he had found by searching for it, than over 
many other coins that had never been lost. Some- 
how, we value a thing in proportion to what it has 
cost us. 

If this be the natural feeling of men, in respect to 
a lost sheep, or a lost piece of silver, how much 
more will it be so with respect to a lost son. A cer- 
tain man had two sons. He loved them both. The 
younger son went away into a far country. He would 
not be controlled. He became a spendthrift and a 
profligate. He was a lost boy, to his father. In the 
strong words of the parable, he was dead to his 
father. But his father continued to love his younger 
son, — to love him, perhaps, even more because he 
was lost. So that when the son came back with 
repentance, and confession, the father received him, 
and welcomed him with joy. He brought forth the 
best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his 
hand, and shoes on his feet; and called on all his 



HEAVEN IN SYMPATHY WITH THE PENITENT. 263 

friends to rejoice and be glad, because the lost was 
found, and the dead was alive again. 

This is very simple and natural, but we should not 
have applied these illustrations to the method of God 
with men if it had not been for these teachings of 
Jesus. It has not been the common tendency of 
men to reason in this way of God's feelings towards 
the sinful. Partly because men have felt unworthy of 
God's love, and partly because they have thought 
more of God's power than of His fatherhood, they 
have taken it for granted that He would not forgive 
their sins unless they could make up to Him for the 
wrong they had done, by some gifts or sufferings of 
their own. Look where you will, among Jews or 
Gentiles, you will find it taken for granted that it is 
not easy for God to forgive sin. It is only in the 
teachings of our Saviour that we learn that He loved 
us while we were yet sinners ; and that His love led 
Him to seek for the lost; and that He welcomes 
them when they come back to Him. All this good 
news rests simply upon the word of the Son of Man, 
who proclaimed it, not in one place only, but in all 
places, and at all times, making it the great idea of 
His ministry to men. As men rejoice when the lost 
is found, as a father is glad when his prodigal comes 
back, likewise (that word likewise draws after it the 
whole gospel), likewise joy shall be in Heaven over 
one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and 
nine just persons that need no repentance. 

We have a group of divine truths here which we 
shall do well to consider. 



264 HEAVEN IN SYMPATHY WITH THE PENITENT. 



I. 

The first is this : The law of sympathy is the law of 
the universe. Modern science has taught us that the 
worlds are bound together; that every part is related 
to the other parts ; every star, whether near or re- 
mote, is attracted, and is attracting every other star ; 
there is no part of the works of God that is isolated ; 
no part left out from the sweep of the general 
laws ; no part forgotten or alone. 

So, the gospel teaches that there are bonds of sym- 
pathy which link together all the intelligent beings of 
the universe, so that the world of mind is one world. 
Man is made in the image, and after the likeness of 
God, — made, also, a little lower than the angels ; so 
that God loves the world and seeks to redeem it; and 
the Son of God came " to seek and save the lost," 
and the angels rejoice when sinners come to repent- 
ance. They are all " ministering spirits, sent forth to 
minister unto the heirs of salvation," 1 and even the 
least and smallest are under the care of the angels, 
who always behold the face of the Father, who is in 
Heaven. 2 So that the law of sympathy makes us 
one family on earth and in Heaven. 8 I do not see 
how there can be a soul in God's universe utterly 
alone, any more than there can be a star outside the 
reach of those forces and laws that environ the uni- 
verse. If the angels rejoice over one sinner that 
repenteth, then the angels must know about that one 

1 Hebrews i. 14. 2 St. Matthew xviii. 10. 

3 Ephesians iii. 15. 



HEAVEN IN SYMPATHY WITH THE PENITENT. 265 

sinner; then there is some means of communication 
between earth and heaven, and that communication 
must be always open, for there are, every day, some 
sinners coming to repentance. We are not to think 
of the universe of God as a mere system of natural 
forces and laws, but as the great dwelling-place which 
God has provided for beings who share His image and 
likeness, who are the objects of His love and care, 
and who live in open view of angels and ministers of 
grace. 

There is a little island in the midst of the great sea, 
on which a few people are dwelling. They have no 
knowledge of any other land, or tribe of men. Their 
range is limited by their own shores. If they learn 
to venture out a little way upon the sea, they cannot 
get sight of any other land. Their island home is all 
the world to them. But in the course of time a ship 
arrives from the continent, and the islanders see 
people of the same race, with the same powers and 
wants; and they learn that far over the deep there 
are other tribes and nations. There is a great broth- 
erhood of mankind. The ship, which has come to 
them, has brought them into connection with this 
great brotherhood ; and not only so, the ship has 
brought them helps and comforts, of which they had 
never dreamed. It has brought them the arts of life. 
It begins among them the process of civilization, and 
opens the way for an indefinite improvement. 

So the people of this earth look out into space, 
and wonder if there are other worlds and other races 
of beings. They inquire whence they have come, 
and whither they are going ; but they find no certain 



266 HEAVEN IN SYMPATHY WITH THE PENITENT. 

answer. But to these, thus limited and darkened, 
there come messengers from other worlds, voices 
from beings not of their own race. They learn that 
the earth had a beginning, and that it has a pur- 
pose in the plan of its Creator; that He has made 
them ; that He loves them ; that He is their Father ; 
and that He is causing all things to work for their 
good. 

How this revelation will change all things to them. 
They are still weak, and dependent, but they can 
lean upon an Almighty arm. They are encircled by 
the evidences of infinite love. They are the objects 
of divine compassion, and are comforted by exceed- 
ing great and precious promises. God loves them, 
although they are sinful. The well-beloved Son of 
God has died for them. The angels of God rejoice 
when they repent. There is assuredly hope for them, 
and it will be their own fault if they do not find 
salvation. 

The law of sympathy is the law of the universe. 
All men are brethren. All the worlds are connected. 
Heaven is in communication with earth. We belong 
to a numerous family. And God, the great Father, 
has redeemed us all. 

II. 

Another thought suggested by the text is this: 
This sympathy is measured by our need. 

There is joy " in Heaven over one sinner that 
repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just per- 
sons that need no repentance." Who these just 



HEAVEN IN SYMPATHY WITH THE PENITENT. 267 

persons are, that need no repentance the Bible 
does not tell us. Perhaps they are the people of 
other worlds who have never sinned. It may be 
that these are so numerous as to be as ninety and 
nine to one of those who do need repentance. It 
may be that ours is the only world that sin has 
entered ; and perhaps on that account the sympathy 
of Heaven is drawn out for it. Perhaps the angels 
concentrate their efforts upon the salvation of the 
human race. 

Certainly the Saviour teaches in all this chapter 
that the sympathy of God and angels is increased by 
the greatness of our necessities. The shepherd cares 
for the lost sheep because it is lost, just as the father 
cares for his returning son because he has been lost. 
It is a principle in nature which we often observe. 
As soon as a plant or tree is injured, all the forces of 
its life set themselves to repair the injury. Or if any 
part of our body is wounded, the vital powers con- 
centrate their energy to repair that part. So if one 
of our neighbors is sick, everybody is inquiring for 
him ; and we are all trying to do what we can for his 
comfort and recovery, more than for ninety and nine 
well persons which need no help. You read a while 
ago of an unfortunate man whose boat had been 
drawn into the rapids above Niagara, and hundreds 
of people gathered on the shore, and watched with 
breathless interest the efforts of the man to turn his 
boat towards the shore ; and, as he was swept nearer 
and nearer the brink of the cataract, men held their 
breath, and grew pale, and some fainted at the spec- 
tacle from which they had no power to turn their 



268 HEAVEN IN SYMPATHY WITH THE PENITENT. 

eyes. So God and angels are drawn, by all the 
power of sympathy, towards those who are sinful, 
who are sleeping on the brink of destruction, and 
who are coming nearer, every day, to the limits of 
their probation. The Scriptures are quite explicit in 
teaching this truth. Christ said, " They that are 
whole need not a physician, but they that are sick." 
He came " not to call the righteous, but sinners." 1 
He was the Saviour of " lost men " in such a sense 
that He sought the sinful, and the outcasts, and 
made known to these people the larger hope of the 
gospel. The philosophers sought the wisest, and the 
purest men, because they were best fitted to receive 
the new truths they had to give them; but Christ 
sought out the publicans and sinners of His time, 
because they were in greater need than others of 
His love and grace. 

This point is very distinctly taught in the gospel. 
God is attracted towards us, not by our deserts, but 
by our great necessities. It is not justice, but love 
and sympathy which are the motives for His seek- 
ing to redeem us ; for we read, " God commendeth 
His love unto us, in that while we were yet sinners 
Christ died for us." 2 

III. 

A third principle in this group of thoughts is this : 

The sympathy of God and His angels for sinful men is 

personal. I think it would be a very wonderful thing 

if we had been told that there is joy in Heaven when 

1 St. Mark ii. 17. 2 Romans v. 8. 



HEAVEN IN SYMPATHY WITH THE PENITENT. 269 

a great multitude of men repent, because the angels 
are very far from us, and we should hardly expect 
them to take much interest in those who dwell here. 
But it is a great deal more when we are taught that 
there is joy among the angels when one sinner is 
saved. For this statement involves a more real and 
complete sympathy. It is like the feeling of the 
shepherd for the one sheep that had gone astray, or 
like the feeling of the father for the son who had 
become a prodigal. The text actually teaches that 
the feeling of God, and of His angels, for sinful men, 
is like that of a father for his son who is lost. Then 
they must know something about each one of us. 
They know our names and our characters, our temp- 
tations, our victories, and defeats; and they know, 
too, the grand possibilities for those who are saved 
from sin in the Kingdom of God. 

It has been said with truth that the Christian reli- 
gion has taught the world a new doctrine of the dignity 
and value of the individual. It has certainly brought 
a new hope to common men by teaching that God 
cares for man as man, without reference to his rank, 
or his attainments. Our Christian civilization lifts up 
the weak, and protects the helpless, and brings a 
share of the prizes of life within reach of the aver- 
age man. Objection is sometimes made to this 
tendency. Matthew Arnold complained that the civ- 
ilization of the United States is such as to favor " the 
average man," rather than the man of highest intelli- 
gence and culture. The civilization which Mr. Arnold 
unconsciously pleaded for was a civilization with an 
aristocratic basis. But this is in striking contrast 



270 HEAVEN IN SYMPATHY WITH THE PENITENT. 

with the spirit of this text. The sympathy of the 
angels is for man as man. — man in danger, and in 
trouble ; the average man, — yes ; for those who are 
far below the average man, — for publicans and sin- 
ners; for men who were lost, and who have been 
redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. We do 
not realize how much God cares for us. A man 
comes into the great congregation on the Lord's 
day. He goes to his pew. He is only one among 
the multitude. He is not distinguished. He is no 
more than an average man. But God cares for that 
man, because he has the powers and the destiny of 
a man, and because he may have an inheritance 
among the angels. 

The division of labor in our time tends to give 
men a low idea of their capacities. There was more 
independence and more dignity in the old times when 
men became masters of a business, or a handicraft. 
But now, when each man is expected to limit himself 
to his specialty, to make an infinitesimal part of 
something, to make the spring of a penknife, for in- 
stance, or the eighteenth part of a pin, — when work 
is specialized in this way, our tendency is to think of 
each workman as of very little importance. A man 
can limit his attention to the smallest part of the 
work of life, and yet he knows that he has powers 
which fit him to do a great many things. The insect 
can do one thing, and only one. An animal can do 
a few things, but it soon reaches its limit. But a man 
can do so many things that the world is full of his 
work, and every year brings new inventions, which 
open the way to broader activities. 



HEAVEN IN SYMPATHY WITH THE PENITENT. 27 1 

And then, man never reaches the limit of his 
growth. One of the commonplace sayings in regard 
to children is that they will take the places of their 
parents in a few years. But the angels look much 
further than that. In a few years the sinner that 
repenteth will enter into the city of God, and will 
become such a being as the knowledge and the pur- 
ity, and the employments of Heaven will make a 
redeemed soul. The angels see the lost sheep wan- 
dering upon the mountains, and they know how much 
the Good Shepherd cares for that one sheep, and how 
much He can do for it, when He has it back in the 
fold. 

IV. 

The last of the thoughts that come from this text 
is this : The one event in human life which causes joy 
in Heaven is the repentance of a sinner. Men rejoice 
when a child is born, but the angels rejoice when that 
child is born again. Men rejoice when their children 
are growing up to manhood, when they are graduated 
from school or from college, when they enter upon 
business, or upon professional life. If an inheritance 
falls to one, all his friends rejoice. He is congratu- 
lated on his marriage, or on winning some coveted 
honor or position in the world. But these are only 
steps in the earthly life. They may not improve the 
character, or fit one for the kingdom of God. We 
are what we are at heart. Our destiny will depend 
on our relations with God. One who is living with- 
out God in the world, — what has he to expect in the 
world to come ? What is there for those who are dead 



272 HEAVEN IN SYMPATHY WITH THE PENITENT. 

in trespasses and sins, — even though they be clothed 
in purple, and fare sumptuously every day? 

Repentance is the beginning of the new life. It is 
the turning away from a life of wandering, and going 
back towards the Father's house. It is godly sorrow 
for the sins that are past, and giving the heart and 
the life to Christ. You say it is only the beginning. 
But the beginning is an essential part. Every evil 
habit, every downward course has had a beginning. 
When one has begun to go wrong he will go on 
towards greater wrong unless he repents and begins 
to go back. So every part of our improvement has 
had its beginning. When " a sinner repenteth " he is 
doing his first right act. He is bringing himself within 
reach of the promises of God. He is securing the help 
and the grace of Christ. Every one who repenteth, 
sincerely, will be forgiven for Christ's sake. His 
name will be written in the Book of Life. His prayers 
will come up with acceptance before God ; and if he 
goes on humbly and prayerfully, he will be kept by 
the power of God, through faith unto salvation. 1 
The little leaven of grace will work until it pervades 
his whole soul. He will become more holy and 
blessed, until he is prepared to be presented before 
God " without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing." 2 



This is the gospel, as our Saviour taught it. In this 
way He sets forth that law of sympathy which per- 
vades the universe : a sympathy born of solicitude ; a 
sympathy for individuals ; a sympathy for those who 

1 1 Peter i. 5. 2 Ephesians v. 27. 



HEAVEN IN SYMPATHY WITH THE PENITENT. 273 

are exposed to the greatest perils ; a solicitude for 
their repentance and their salvation. 

1. Let no one, therefore, feel that he is alone. 
There is a strong bond of sympathy between each 
one of us, and God our Saviour, and the angels and 
ministers of grace. 

2. Neither let any one who is unsaved suppose that 
his condition is a comfortable one. The angels of 
God are solicitous for you because they know the 
secrets of the other world. They know what you 
will lose if you lose your soul. They know what 
you will gain if you have a part in the great salvation. 

3. If, then, God and angels are solicitous on your 
account, shall not you, also, be solicitous? Christ 
came " to seek and to save the lost." 2 " It is a faith- 
ful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ 
Jesus came into the world to save sinners." 2 " Be- 
hold now is the acceptable time, behold now is the 
day of salvation." 3 

1 St. Luke xix. 10. 2 1 Timothy i. 15. 

3 2 Corinthians vi. 2. 



18 



XVII. 
WHAT IS TRUE LIBERTY? 



XVII. 

WHAT IS TRUE LIBERTY? 

And he said, A certain man had two sons : and the 
younger of them said to his father. Father, give me the por- 
tion of thy substance that falleth to me. And he divided 

unto them his living. 

St. Luke xv. 11-12. 

THIS most interesting parable of the prodigal son 
— one of the brightest gems in the whole group of 
parables — represents all our life as connected with 
God, as the life of a son with a father. God is repre- 
sented by the father of the family ; the Pharisees who 
were complaining because the Saviour received sin- 
ners are represented by the older son, and sinful 
men have for their type the prodigal son. The whole 
is under the form of a family life. There is the father, 
who owns all, and to whom all ought to give their 
love and obedience ; the older son, who was obedient 
indeed, but narrow, uncharitable, and self-righteous ; 
and the younger son, who thought he should have 
more liberty if he took his portion of goods, and 
went to the far country. The father's home is the 
centre of the picture, — the home of the family, 
the place of abundance, the place of return after 
wandering, the place of welcome for the returning 
prodigal. 



278 WHAT IS TRUE LIBERTY ? 

There is nothing in any literature, or in the sacred 
books of any religion, better fitted to give a correct 
view of the relation of God to us, than this parable. 
Not as a judge, not as a lawgiver, not as a king, is 
God presented to us here, but as a father, with a 
father's sympathy, and dignity, and resources, so 
that, if the son will go away to the far country, he 
can provide him a portion. He will allow him to 
make his own choice, and yet he will follow him with 
a father's solicitude, and will be willing to meet him, 
if he comes back, with free forgiveness, and to put on 
him the best robe, and to give him the signet ring, 
and shoes for his feet, and to kill for him the fatted 
calf, and to rejoice because the lost is found, and 
the dead is alive again. Think of the old home, — 
the place of the sweet experiences of a bright child- 
hood, the place of plenty, and of wise and whole- 
some restraint, the place of abounding love ; that is 
the central object in the picture. There is the father, 
who has bound the children so closely to him that 
they can never forget him. If they go away into a 
strange land, they will be sure to think of him when 
trouble touches them ; and if they have done him 
any wrong they will wish to confess it, and to ask his 
forgiveness, when they come to themselves. Now lift 
the thought from the earthly home to the heavenly 
home, from the best father in the home below to the 
Father above, and you have the point of view of this 
parable. The Saviour taught us to say, Our Father, 
because He came to reveal the Fatherhood of God, 
and to show us that we are all loved, and cared for, 
as the children of God, 



WHAT IS TRUE LIBERTY ? 279 



I. 

In the text we have a son from this family asserting 
his freedom, and going away from his father's house 
to a far country, with his portion of goods. The 
parable tells us of the going away, and what came of 
it. The young man said to his father : " Father, give 
me the portion of thy substance that falleth to me." 
By the " portion that falleth to me," we may under- 
stand one's time, and possessions, and opportunities, 
of all sorts. When we read that the son said, 
" Father, give me the portion that falleth to me," we 
have the expression of the desire of those who wish 
to cast aside the restraints of the Heavenly Father. 
Their purpose is to use their lives as they please. 
The younger son did not go away from his father's 
house because he needed to go, or because he desired 
to do a larger work than he could do there, but be- 
cause he wanted to live more freely. He desired to 
do as he pleased. He was asserting his individuality, 
not for the sake of a noble and useful life, but for the 
sake of self-indulgence. So he took his portion of 
goods, and went into the far country, and there 
wasted his substance with riotous living. He had 
certain desires for a self-indulgent life, and he went 
into the far country that he might be free to gratify 
those desires. 

II. 

Let us observe, the father did not prevent him from 
doing as he pleased. He recognized the freedom of 
his son. If he would have his portion of goods, and 



2%0 WHAT IS TRUE LIBERTY ? 

go and waste it, he should have it. God deals with 
us as moral agents. I suppose He could control us. 
He could prevent sin by an arbitrary use of His 
power. The father, in the parable, could have pre- 
vented his son from going into the far country. Cer- 
tainly, he could have refused to give him the portion 
of goods which he asked for. But that is not the way 
in which a wise father deals with his sons after they 
have reached years of discretion. It is not the way 
in which God deals with us. Our characters are 
formed in the experiences of life, and there can be 
no character without freedom of action. If we are 
to become virtuous and holy we must choose the 
good, and the power to choose the good implies a 
power to choose the evil. If God leaves us free, then 
it is certainly possible for us to choose the wrong 
instead of the right. To be free is to be able to 
choose vice or virtue, sin or holiness. People some- 
times inquire why God does not prevent the sin that 
men commit? The answer is: God does all He can 
properly do to prevent sin, but God leaves us free, 
and if He leaves us really free, then He cannot pre- 
vent us from choosing the evil instead of the good. 
Certainly God could prevent sin by an exertion of His 
almighty power. But there is no virtue in that which 
is done by compulsion. The same arbitrary act of 
God which prevented sin would make virtue impos- 
sible. If we are to be really holy we must choose 
holiness, and choose it freely. And if we are free 
to choose, then we are able to choose wrongly. So 
that while God leaves us free, we have the power to 
sin. 



WHAT IS TRUE LIBERTY ? 28 1 

The prodigal was free to stay with his father, as a 
dutiful son, or to go to the far country to waste his 
substance with riotous living. In either case he 
would have been perfectly free. If he had stayed, 
it would have been because he loved his father, and 
desired to follow the sort of life that his father was 
following, and to put himself under the restraints of 
a life of virtue. If he went to the far country, it 
would be because he preferred to gratify his desires 
for a riotous life.. These two leading motives would 
come up in his mind : the desire to remain with his 
father, and to live a good life, and the desire to be 
free for a life of license and of riot. He could follow 
either motive, as he should choose, — the lower mo- 
tive, or the higher motive, the good or the evil. He 
could go, or he could stay. 

It is precisely so in the great choices which we 
make in respect to a religious life. The one who re- 
fuses to come to Christ acts freely, and in so doing 
he uses his liberty. But the one who comes to Christ 
also acts freely, and so he uses his liberty. When a 
man says, I want more freedom than I could have in a 
religious life, he does as he pleases. But when another 
takes the yoke of Christ, and finds the yoke easy, and 
the burden light, he, also, does as he pleases. So far 
forth, the one is as free as the other. 

III. 

It appears, then, that there are two sorts of liberty. 
The prodigal son said, give me the portion that 
falleth to me, because he desired to gain his liberty. 
Just as one who refuses to come to Christ does it 



282 WHAT IS TRUE LIBERTY ? 

because he desires to keep his liberty. One may 
say, I am fond of certain ways of living which I 
could not follow if I were a Christian, and I am 
going to keep my liberty. Another says, I am fond 
of certain vices which I could not practise if I were 
a Christian, and I am going to keep my liberty. 
Just as a third may say, I am engaged in a cer- 
tain business which I could not continue if I were 
to become a Christian, and I will not surrender my 
liberty. 

A group of young people are thinking about enter- 
ing upon the Christian life. They agree that they 
ought to do this. They desire to do good to others. 
They think, also, that it is the highest and noblest 
life. They are attracted to Christ, as the Saviour of 
men. His love constrains them, 1 and they decide to 
follow Him. They begin very humbly, and with ear- 
nest prayer, and the Lord gives to each of them a 
new experience. They love the ways of piety. 
They enjoy prayer, and all religious exercises, and 
they love to do the things that will please Christ. 
They have dropped the old pleasures, because they 
have a richer enjoyment in the new life. 

Are not both these classes acting as they please? 
Are they not both entirely free? Is there any differ- 
ence between them in respect to freedom? And yet 
they are going in opposite directions. That course 
of life which is the greatest joy to those of the one 
class, would be bondage to those of the other class. 
The difference between them is not in respect to 
liberty, but it is in respect to the ruling desire and 
1 2 Corinthians v. 14. 



WHAT IS TRUE LIBERTY ? 283 

purpose. That which is the joy of the one is unwel- 
come to the other. If you ask those who are Chris- 
tians whether they desire to go back to the old life, 
they will say, No ; because we have something that is 
far better. They find the new life more and more 
attractive. So that the man who thinks he would 
lose his liberty by becoming a Christian is mistaken. 
The Christian has not lost the power to do the things 
that are sinful, but he does not choose them. His 
strongest desire is. to lead a higher and a better life, 
and in seeking to lead such a life he is just as truly 
free as the other who is following the lower life. 

IV. 

Which of these is the higher kind of liberty ? Let 
us seek for illustrations, first of all, in the common 
affairs of life. There are two boys at school. One 
of them is always breaking the rules, wasting his 
time, playing truant. You urge him to become a 
diligent scholar, and he replies, No ; I am going to do 
as I please. I '11 have my liberty. The other boy is 
regular in his attendance, obedient, and studious. 
The idle boys try to induce him to go with them, 
but he says, No ; I do not like your way, and I am 
going to do as I please. Certainly, both of these 
boys have their liberty. Both are doing as they 
please. But which is the higher sort of liberty, — 
the liberty of being idle, and shiftless, or the liberty 
of being industrious and true? Is not that the no- 
blest sort of liberty which opens the way to the noblest 
life? 



284 WHAT IS TRUE LIBERTY ? 

Here is a group of Indians, accustomed to range at 
will over the prairie. They love that wild, indolent 
life, because it is so free. The Indian does not like 
to work. But is he really freer than the civilized 
man who enjoys his beautiful home, and his intelli- 
gent and cultured family, and who pursues his regu- 
lar employment cheerfully, because it secures to him 
the means of living in a regular and civilized way? 
Is civilization a bondage? It requires regular indus- 
try, and economy, and temperance, and honesty, and 
truthfulness, and benevolence, in order to its highest 
development; but is it, therefore, a bondage? Do 
we not enjoy a much higher form of liberty than the 
wild Indians? 

Here is an intemperate man. He loves his cups, 
and he is frequently intoxicated. You ask him to 
sign the temperance pledge, and he will tell you he is 
not going to sign away his liberty. What sort of 
liberty is that for a rational man, to squander his 
earnings, to make a beast of himself, to make his 
home wretched, to become a terror to his own fam- 
ily? But you are a temperate man. Is there any 
bondage in that? In living a temperate life you 
place yourself under that limitation, that you will not 
use intoxicating drinks. Does that lessen your free- 
dom? Certainly not, because you impose the rule 
upon yourself. You limit yourself, for your own 
good, and because the example is a safe one for 
others. Do you lose any real liberty by doing that? 
Are you not gaining a higher sort of liberty? 

The drunkard is free in that he gratifies his desires. 
But does not that sort of gratification bring him into 



WHAT IS TRUE LIBERTY ? 285 

bondage to these desires and appetites, and does it 
not degrade his manhood? And yet, though he is 
bound, hand and foot, by low and ruinous habits, he 
talks about signing away his liberty. The poor, rag- 
ged, wretched man, who has lost his self-respect, and 
dulled all his nobler feelings, — how much true lib- 
erty has such a man? Is there any way for him to 
regain his liberty except by restraining his appetites, 
and breaking off his evil habits, and bringing that 
poor, broken nature of his under the control of the 
law of duty and right? 

Liberty, then, is more than doing as one pleases. 
Let the irrational beasts follow their appetites and 
desires. But it is the glory of man, as a rational 
being, that he can follow the ends of life which he 
has chosen for himself, according to a rational and 
moral law. He is able to rise above his lower nature, 
and to rule it. In this control of that which is sen- 
suous he enters the realm of true freedom. The freest 
man is the man who has brought his whole nature 
under the control of a moral rule. The temperate 
man is freer than the drunkard, because he is the 
master of himself, while the drunkard is the slave of 
his appetites. The man who is industrious and vir- 
tuous is a freer man than the one who is indolent and 
reckless, because the first is gaining the mastery of 
himself, bringing his powers of body and of mind 
under the rules of morality, while the other is per- 
mitting his nature to run wild, allowing evil habits to 
grow up, and evil principles to control his life. So, 
the civilized man has more true freedom than the 



286 WHAT IS TRUE LIBERTY ? 

savage, because the first disciplines himself as to his 
manners and ways of living, and principles of action, 
while the second is the slave of his passions, and of 
the indolence of his dull and sluggish nature. The 
free man is the man who holds himself under the 
control of his reason and his conscience, taking upon 
himself the yoke of Him who was meek and gentle, 
and benevolent and self-sacrificing, that He might 
save the world. Such an one will be gaining the 
mastery over his evil inclinations and habits, and will 
be coming nearer, continually, to that standard of per- 
fection that ever flames before us, — the inspiration 
and the type of a noble character. 

V. 

What sort of freedom was it, then, that the prodigal 
son gained in the far country? We find him at first 
in a home of abundance, of industry, and of affection ; 
a home sanctified by parental love strong enough to 
last through years of ingratitude and of dishonor, and 
to welcome a returning son who came covered with the 
scars of vice and sin. The highest freedom for this 
younger son of such a father would have been secured 
by following the best examples which he found there, 
and bringing his unruly appetites under the law of 
duty, and so building up a character, — gentle, affec- 
tionate, self-centred, steady, and strong. There, in the 
presence of purity and love, he might have gained 
the mastery of his powers, and formed his habits, and 
developed his tastes, and cultivated his intelligence, 
and so won the laurels of victory. 



WHAT IS TRUE LIBERTY ? 287 

But the weak and foolish prodigal sought to gain 
his freedom by breaking away from the educating 
and refining influences of the father's house ; taking 
the portion of goods that fell to him, and going into 
the far country, not to live a larger and more benefi- 
cent life, but to give himself up to the control of his 
lower appetites, — wasting his substance in riotous 
living, spending his estate with harlots, and reducing 
himself to utter penury, taking up, in the end, the 
poor industry of feeding swine, and eating their 
husks. There is the liberty of sin, in this forlorn 
debauchee, this miserable and hungry relic of a man, 
— so low, that though he was perishing with hunger, 
no man gave unto him. 

This is the representation which the Saviour has 
drawn, in a few strong lines, — the masterly touches 
of a divine Artist, — of the result of going away 
from God to a life of sin, claiming the right to live as 
one pleases, instead of living as one ought, to follow 
one's own will instead of the will of God ; claiming 
the right to live for this world, its pleasures, its riches, 
and honors, instead of living for God, and Christ, and 
our fellow-men. 

All along, in the parable, there is implied the great 
truth of obligation, the highest and the most sacred. 
The centre of the parable is the father's house, the 
central person the father himself. The son had no 
right to go to the far country to waste his substance. 
God is our Father, and we owe our highest duty to 
Him. We have no right to go away from Him, and 
seek our portion in this life. We ought to love God 
with all the heart and soul, and when we refuse to 



288 WHAT IS TRUE LIBERTY ? 

give our hearts to Him we commit the greatest pos- 
sible sin. It is this that makes us prodigals, the fol- 
lowing our will instead of the will of God, and seeking 
our chief good in this life. The parable tells us 
where the struggle will end. The effort to gain free- 
dom in that way brings us into bondage. We shall 
spend our lives in that which will fail to satisfy our 
spiritual wants, and when the sources of earthly 
pleasure begin to dry up, we shall begin " to be in 
want." Alas ! for the man who discovers, as the result 
of life, that there is no living bread in the provision 
he has been laying up for himself. 

It is quite possible for any thoughtful man to esti- 
mate the probable results of the life he is leading. 
Who can be satisfied with what he has found in the 
far country? Does the freedom of a worldly life 
prove to be the true freedom? Do the pleasures of 
such a life really satisfy the soul ? Are not those who 
have taken the yoke of Christ, and who are learning 
of Him, finding the yoke easy, and the burden light? 

VI. 

In the end of the parable we read that the prodi- 
gal " came to himself," and said, " How many hired 
servants of my father's have bread enough and to 
spare, and I perish with hunger. I will arise and go 
to my father." It was a good thought, coming to 
him in the "far country," and that good thought 
was the turning-point in his life. The higher na- 
ture, which he had suppressed, claimed his attention. 
It was still possible for him to go back to his 



WHAT IS TRUE LIBERTY ? 289 

father's house. The father's love would provide 
some redemption for him. There was still an abun- 
dance for him there, though he had " wasted " his 
substance. 

The good thought was not dropped. A great 
many obstacles would hinder his return, — shame, 
the fear of failure, the habits of sin, the influence of 
evil companions. But he held to the " good thought." 
" I will arise and go to my father, and I will say, 
Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy 
sight; I am no more worthy to be called thy son: 
make me as one of thy hired servants." 1 The good 
thought stayed with him, like a guiding star, through 
the long and weary road. He would seek his father's 
face, and confess his sin, and give himself up again 
to his father's service ; not seeking for the place of a 
son, but only of a servant. 

Ah, the good thoughts that come to us in God's 
great mercy, to remind us of our sin and our loss, 
of the joy and peace we might have, — thoughts of 
going back to the Father's house. It may be these 
thoughts come less frequently than they used to 
come. Perhaps the conscience is becoming dull, 
and the sense of spiritual things dim, and the voice 
of God in our souls faint. These are the symptoms 
of advancing spiritual death. The good thought that 
is repressed dies away. The Spirit will not always 
strive with man. 2 

And still, all good changes in life come from fol- 
lowing good thoughts. The road of return is open. 
The Father waits to receive every penitent prodigal. 

1 St. Luke xv. 18-19. 2 Genesis vi. 3. 

19 



290 WHAT IS TRUE LIBERTY ? 

For the sake of His great love, He will blot out the 
sins that are past, and will bring forth the best robe, 
and the signet ring, and those that were lost will be 
found of Him, and those that were dead shall be 
made alive again. 



XVIII. 

OUR LORD'S APPRECIATION OF THE 
GOOD IN EVIL MEN. 



XVIII. 

THE APPRECIATION OF GOOD IN EVIL 

MEN. 

Then Jesus beholding him loved him. 

St. Mark x. 21. 

THIS word, " beholding," is often used of Jesus, and 
it suggests something as to His aspect, and His habits 
in dealing with men. We sometimes say of a man 
that he has a peculiar look. We know an honest 
man by his look. In the same way we recognize a 
person of sensibility and culture. The look, like the 
voice, is characteristic. A painter cannot give you a 
good likeness unless he can catch the characteristic 
look of his subject. 

Many things that we read of Jesus imply that 
when He was about to speak to a person, He raised 
His eyes and looked at him. In this very chapter 
we read, " And Jesus looking upon them saith, With 
men it is impossible, but not with God." 1 We read 
in the Gospel of Luke that when Peter had denied 
Him, " the Lord turned and looked upon Peter." 2 
That look went to the heart of the unfaithful disciple, 
and " he went out and wept bitterly." The look of 
Jesus had the insight of a divine being, for " He knew 
what was in man." When this young Jewish ruler 
came to inquire, "What shall I do that I may in- 

1 St. Mark x. 27. 2 St. Luke xxii. 61-62. 



294 THE APPRECIATION OF GOOD IN EVIL MEN. 

herit eternal life ; " Jesus looked at him, and read his 
thoughts. " Then Jesus beholding him loved him." 
It was a spontaneous love, for Jesus saw at once the 
good there was in him, and His nature was respon- 
sive. He also saw the evil there was in him, but that 
did not prevent the appreciation of the good. Jesus 
saw that this young man, who had come to Him so 
eagerly, had an unusual desire for the best things. 
He was not indifferent to spiritual interests, like the 
larger number whom Jesus met. He was not con- 
tent to float in the current, with little thought of 
duty, and less of the hereafter. He was living a 
clean life, for one thing, and that is a great deal. 
He had kept the commandments from his youth up. 
He desired to have eternal life. He had heard of 
the teaching of Jesus, and when he learned that 
Jesus had come to the place where he was, he 
came running, and kneeled before Him, and inquired 
eagerly what Jesus could tell him of the way to gain 
eternal life. The story is so graphic that we can 
almost see the Master, with His gracious bearing, 
turning to behold this earnest inquirer, who was 
eagerly asking how he could please God, and gain 
His favor. 

Jesus saw the evil in this young man as plainly as 
He saw the good. He perceived that, with all his 
desire to know the truth, he was self-indulgent, ava- 
ricious, and intensely selfish. He desired to gain eter- 
nal life, but his strongest desire was to keep and enjoy 
his great possessions. Jesus saw, at once, that this 
young man loved himself, and did not love God. He 
wanted to gain eternal life for his own gratification. 



THE APPRECIATION OF GOOD IN EVIL MEN. 295 

He was not willing to deny himself, or to consecrate 
his wealth, or to devote himself to the service of 
God. He had not the first element of a true disciple. 
He was not willing to leave father and mother, or 
houses and lands, for Christ's sake. When Jesus 
told him that he must give up all, he did not obey. 
He went away, — sorrowful, indeed, but he went 
away. He was not willing to bear any cross. And 
yet, we read of this man that, " Jesus beholding him 
loved him." 

The lesson for us in the text is this : Jesus appre- 
ciated the good there was in this young man, although 
He knew very well that he lacked the one thing needful. 

I. 

This appreciation of the good in an evil man is very 
much like the love that God has for the world. The 
greatest revelation of God's love is this passage in the 
Epistle to the Romans : " God commendeth His own 
love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, 
Christ died for us." 1 This love for a world of sinners 
was a real love, and it led to the work of Redemption. 
God's love for sinful men is the motive for all He is 
doing to save them, including the mission of Christ 
to the world, the mission of the Holy Spirit, the 
revelation of His will in the Holy Scriptures, and the 
whole system of influences by which true religion 
has been kept alive in the world, and its progress 
secured. God saw something in sinful men which 
He could love. We may apply the text to express 

1 Romans v. 8. 



296 THE APPRECIATION OF GOOD IN EVIL MEN. 

the feelings of our Heavenly Father towards the 
whole world, with all its selfishness, and cruelty, and 
idolatry, and blasphemy. As He looked down from 
heaven upon the children of men : the Father, be- 
holding them, loved them. This love for those who 
are sinful, but who have the capacities for a better 
life, is always set forth in the Bible as the starting- 
point of God's work of Redemption. It is the love 
not of devils, who are utterly bad, but of men, who 
have something remaining of the image of God : 
the sense of right, of obligation to do right; a 
sense of guilt and condemnation when they do 
wrong, with some desire for a higher and better 
life, — a desire that leads them to form resolutions 
of amendment; and a desire to gain eternal life. 
And yet, these whom God loves are really going 
wrong, in spite of their convictions of duty, and 
their aspirations for eternal life. They are seeking 
the lower instead of the higher. They love the 
world and its pleasures. They love themselves more 
than they love God. But God loved evil men, be- 
cause He saw in them capacities for the life of 
angels. 

God did not love sinful men just as He loved the 
holy angels. Jesus, beholding the young man who 
inquired, " What must I do that I may inherit eternal 
life? " did not love him just as He loved John, the be- 
loved disciple, nor as He loved Mary, the sister of 
Lazarus, who sat at His feet, and heard His word. 
And yet He loved him, although He knew that he 
was a sinful man. 

God's love for evil men is very different from His 



THE APPRECIATION OF GOOD IN EVIL MEN. 297 

justice. If we had our deserts at the hand of God, 
He would not have sent the Well Beloved Son to re- 
deem us. The justice of God would lead Him to deal 
with us according to our sins. It is not justice, but 
love, and mercy, and grace, that provide salvation. 
It is that sort of love which is commended to us 
by St. Paul under the name of charity. It is the 
charity that " suffereth long and is kind ; " that 
" hopeth all things," " endureth all things;" that 
" rejoiceth not in iniquity," and is greater than faith 
and hope. 1 

The best illustration of it in human life is the love 
of parents for their children. They love them partly 
because they are their own. This love gives them an 
insight into their best qualities. A mother will see 
good in her wayward boy, when no one else can see 
it. Her love has power to draw out the better side 
of his nature. It is not so easy for him to give him- 
self up to an evil life so long as his mother continues 
to love him. The boy will show more tenderness to 
her, and more desire to do right, than he shows to 
any one else. If anything can reclaim him from 
evil, it is the fact that his mother continues to love 
him. There is a redeeming power in a mother's 
love for a wayward boy, because her love draws him 
towards her own goodness. 

The love of God for sinful men is like this, only it 
is free from its weakness and its blindness. It is the 
love of a real Father ; a love for us as those made in 
His image, and created by His power; a love that 
" suffereth long and is kind ; " that sees the good, 

1 1 Corinthians xiii. 4-13. 



298 THE APPRECIATION OF GOOD IN EVIL MEN. 

even when it is overborne by evil ; a love that leads 
Him to use all the best means to reclaim us from sin, 
and to help us in doing good. 

II. 

In the second place, this love which Jesus had for 
the young man who came to Him, is not only the 
expression of the love of our Father for the sinful 
world, but it is also the example and pattern for all 
His disciples. For, certainly, the mind that was in 
Christ should be also in us. 1 The New Testament 
goes further, when it says, " If any man hath not 
the spirit of Christ, he is none of His." 2 The won- 
derful hopefulness which Jesus manifested, that good 
may come even from evil men, even from publicans 
and sinners, — this hopefulness that good will come 
out of that which is now evil, should be manifested 
by the Christian church. As our Saviour sought 
out the neglected classes in His ministry, — those for 
whom the Pharisees had no hope, — so we should 
cherish an interest in the sinful men who are about 
us; and not only in them, but in the heathen who 
dwell in the ends of the earth. 

Our Lord cherished these expectations of good 
from evil men, because He knew so well the redemp- 
tive power of the agencies which God is using, and 
also because He was able to read the thoughts and 
motives of men. We can judge of our fellow-men 
by what we know of ourselves. We never do wrong 
without some sort of excuse to our consciences, 

1 Philippians ii. 5. 2 Romans viii. 9. 



THE APPRECIATION OF GOOD IN' EVIL MEN. 299 

which are always making their silent protest against 
the wrong. Those whom we condemn for the evil 
they are doing are very much like us. They are 
living mixed lives. Sometimes the evil they do 
they allow not. They have many thoughts of doing 
good, but the influences about them choke the good 
thoughts. If we were as charitable in our judgments 
of others as we are in judging ourselves, we should 
not cast them off. The fact is that in our neighbors, 
as in us, evil exists with the good. It is possible that 
we are not making a better use of our opportunities 
than our fellow-men are making of theirs. There 
are very often tender sympathies, and kind thoughts, 
and resolutions to lead better lives, — recollections of 
the teachings they received years ago, — in those 
who seem to be given up to vice and crime. The 
Saviour, beholding these survivals of the image of 
God, loves evil men ; and if we enter into His spirit, 
we shall share His love. 

Our Lord came to the world not to judge men, but 
to save men. There is no salvation for the guilty in 
strict justice. And so He says to us, "Judge not, 
that ye be not judged." x Whenever the spirit of this 
world, with its selfish, hardening quality, takes pos- 
session of us, we cease to live as the helpers and 
saviours of our fellow-men, and we estimate the pos- 
sibilities of repentance for the sinful according to the 
maxims of this world. We are tempted to live for 
ourselves alone, seeking to build up the divine life 
within us, when we ought to be sharing what we have 
of God's grace and truth with our fellow-men. The 

1 St. Matthew vii. 1. 



300 THE APPRECIATION OF GOOD IN EVIL MEN. 

nearer we come to the mind that was in Christ, the 
more we shall have of His grace. The joy which 
this world cannot give comes to those who enter into 
the love which led the Redeemer to bear the sins of 
the world that the world might be saved. 

III. 

One reason why we should cherish these expecta- 
tions of good concerning those who are now evil is 
that this will prepare us to do them good. This was 
the secret of the power that Jesus had over the sinful. 
He came on the mission of Redemption, because He 
knew so well the possibilities of improvement for 
men. His hopeful love led Him to seek and to save 
the lost. He ate with publicans and sinners, as one 
means of showing His sympathy, and of awakening 
their hopes. He did not repel the woman who 
washed His feet with her tears, and wiped them with 
the hairs of her head, though He knew that she was 
a sinner of such a sort as makes a woman an outcast. 
There was no pollution for Him in her touch, because 
He saw, in her stained and polluted soul, the possi- 
bility of a great repentance and a great salvation. 
He was able to discern the image of God in her. As 
the diamond is rough and unpromising when it is 
taken from the mine, and needs to be skilfully worked 
that its brilliancy may appear, so the souls that have 
been debased and dimmed by the defilements of sin 
need to be cleansed and brightened by the spirit of 
God, that the image of God may shine out. 

We are to bear in mind that in all souls not utterly 



THE APPRECIATION OF GOOD IN EVIL MEN. 301 

dead, there is some desire for a better life. There is 
something to which the gospel appeals. It meets 
the deepest wants. This is the ground of hope in 
preaching. The truth always secures some conver- 
sions in any congregation where it is preached in the 
spirit of sympathy and hope, in any part of the world. 
For there is a witness for God in every man, which 
holds him responsible for his actions, and urges him 
to follow the better way. If the secret thoughts of 
people who are outside the churches could be known, 
they would give great encouragement to those who 
are trying to do them good. Many men who have 
given themselves up to intemperance and vice, feel 
their bondage, and cherish the hope that at some 
time they may escape from it. But long experience 
in sin has confirmed their evil habits ; their compan- 
ions are as wicked as themselves, and the failure of 
their efforts to reform has disheartened them. Some 
such men are looking to the churches with the hope 
that some help will come from them. We have the 
testimony of some such men, that, at the time when 
they were very far from a good life, they clung to 
the expectation that some influences from Christians 
would reach them. There have been instances of 
such people hovering about the churches, looking 
in, perhaps, at the evening service, with a desire to 
gain that spiritual experience which they were sure 
that true Christians had. And this has been the 
means of their salvation. 

The success of the preaching of Christ and of His 
Apostles to the publicans and sinners of their time, 
confirms this view. The history of missions to the 



302 THE APPRECIATION OF GOOD IN EVIL MEN. 

lower races confirms it. The success of the Wesleyan 
preachers in England a century ago confirms it. 
The work which the Salvation Army is doing among 
people who had seemed to be given up to unbelief 
and sin, shows how much can be accomplished by 
those who will go to evil men with sympathy, and 
confidence in the regenerating power of the truth 
and of the Spirit. More recently, the Volunteers, in 
this country, have been testing the power of the 
simple gospel to rescue the criminals in our prisons. 
Those who are content to find their field of labor 
among publicans and sinners have very often found 
a richer field than those who have preached to the 
Scribes and Pharisees of their time. 

IV. 

The church certainly has a mission to those who 
are not far from the Kingdom. It has a mission to 
its own children, and to those who come from week 
to week to attend religious services. It has always 
been the method of God's economy to gather His 
people into the religious community, with its vast 
resources of Christian knowledge and consecrated 
wealth, and to continue this community through the 
generations as the source and reservoir of spiritual 
power. The light is to go out from this source to 
those who are outside, — to the great masses of the 
unsaved. The highest work of the church is, like 
that of the Master, "to seek and save the lost." 
But there are times when the churches seem, to those 
who are outside, to be selfish and exclusive, their 



THE APPRECIATION OF GOOD IN EVIL MEN. 303 

members more anxious to save their own souls than 
to save their fellow-men ; rejoicing to read their 

" title clear 
To mansions in the skies," 

but unmindful of the condition of the unsaved about 
them. 

That impression is in many instances unjust, but it 
is a real obstacle to the best work of the churches. 
That impression is one cause of the increasing neglect 
of public worship. People say: If they were in ear- 
nest they would talk with us about a religious experi- 
ence, and invite us to go with them to the church. 
The same feeling is shown by the gratitude which 
they express to those who talk with them earnestly 
about their salvation. 

The community is always interested in the religious 
tone and spirit of the church. Whenever there is an 
increase of earnestness among Christians the congre- 
gation begins to fill up. Let it be understood that 
there is an awakening among believers, greater fer- 
vency in prayer, with an evident desire for the con- 
version of men, and those who are outside will come 
in. People will go away from the places that only 
gratify their taste, but they will crowd the churches 
where Christians meet them with the sympathy that 
springs from a genuine desire for their salvation. 
For the men of the world are not all unbelievers. 
They remember the truths they learned in earlier 
years. These have followed them through the changes 
of their lives. Unconsciously to themselves, many 
of them are hoping that at some time they shall be 



304 THE APPRECIATION OF GOOD IN EVIL MEN. 

better than they now are. When they see that we 
really care for their souls, they are likely to respond 
to our invitations, and to come with us to the Saviour 
of lost men. 

It is true, however, that we have no assurance that 
all will accept the free offers of the gospel. The young 
man who came to Jesus went away to his great pos- 
sessions. Even the love of Christ did not always 
induce those whom He met to follow Him. The 
obstacle is not that God's interest in man is limited, 1 
but that God leaves man/w to accept or to reject the 
offers of His grace. If a man is able to reject those 
offers for one day, it is possible that he may reject 
them for all days. The experience of our Saviour 
and of all His followers shows that when the best 
possible means are used with evil men, they may be 
in vain. All the more important, is it, therefore, to 
use the best means in the best possible way. The 
work of Redemption has always been limited by the 
unbelief of those to whom the great salvation has 
been offered. But as the love of Christ constrained 
the earliest disciples to follow Him, so, in these latest 
times, the power of our religion has been the power 
of love. It is the love of God that is drawing the 
world unto Him. We must manifest a love like His, 
if we would have a part in His work. 

1 Immortality and the New Theodicy, Rev. George A. Gordon, D.D. 



XIX. 

THE LIFE BEYOND THE CLOUD. 



XIX. 

THE LIFE BEYOND THE CLOUD. 

And when he had said these things, as they were looking, 
he was taken up ; and a cloud received him out of their sight. 

Acts i. 9. 

THIS is Easter Sunday, — the Sunday of the resur- 
rection of our Lord. It was fitting that the spring, 
which comes so much earlier in Judaea than in our 
colder latitude, should have been the season of His 
resurrection. When nature begins to renew its life, 
with the returning sun, at the time of the vernal 
equinox, it has been thought to be a type of the 
renewal of life after death. That was the season, 
beyond all doubt, when the Son of man arose from 
the dead, and became the first fruits of them that 
slept. By His resurrection He gave us the assurance 
of our resurrection, and taught us something of its 
nature, for the Apostle tells us that our " bodies shall 
be fashioned like unto His glorious body." 1 

I. 

We can thirik of some things without the Bible, 
which make it probable that there is another life. 
The present life is so incomplete, and so unsatisfac- 

1 Philippians iii. 21. 



308 THE LIFE BEYOND THE CLOUD. 

tory, that we are inclined to believe that there is some 
higher sphere for us, in which our powers will develop 
more freely, and in which we can come nearer the 
fruition of our hopes than we can come here. The 
state of the world, and the hard conditions under 
which life goes on, suggest the hope that the Creator 
will provide for us a better life than this. Besides, 
there seems to be in our nature an instinctive desire 
for continued existence, and an expectation of it. 
This tendency is so decided, and so permanent, that, 
speaking broadly, one may say that all men, in all 
stages of social life, and in all ages of the world, have 
believed in a life beyond the present. Some of the 
earliest philosophers have set forth the reasons for 
this belief with great clearness and force. The Phaedo 
of Plato, written three centuries and a half before the 
coming of Christ, contains a wonderful argument for 
immortality, drawn from the nature of the soul. 
Plato attempts to bring the doctrine of a future life 
into connection with his theory of knowledge. 1 The 
belief in immortality has shown its power not only in 
the best literature of the world, but especially in the 
religious rites of all nations. The motives connected 
with this belief have always had a large place in the 
life of man. The belief in another life, which has 
appeared so generally among the beliefs of men, 
seems to have come from an original tendency in the 
soul, or from some knowledge which God gave to 
man in His earliest revelation. 

1 The Phaedo, in Jowett's Plato, vol i. 429-499. See a full state- 
ment in The Witness to Immortality, by Dr. George A. Gordon, 
pp. 135-179- 



THE LIFE BEYOND THE CLOUD. 309 



II. 

But the most of us need to have something added to 
these natural beliefs. We cannot help the wish that 
those who have gone from this life could come back 
and tell us what they have experienced. Death is a 
mystery. It comes on gradually, or suddenly. The 
processes of physical life cease. The mind loses the 
power to communicate with us. The friend who is 
dying speaks to us up to a certain moment, and then 
he speaks no more. He hears no more, so far as we 
know. We say, the life and the spirit are gone. We 
hope this is not the end. We think that if a man die 
he will live again. Men have been so confident of it 
that they have said that they knew it. But it is a 
great help to this hope, that Christ came to bring 
life and incorruption to light through the gospel. 1 

The life of Christ in this world is itself a proof of 
the reality of a spiritual world, for He came out of 
that world into this. Our existence begins here, so 
far as we know. We can tell how many years we 
have had a being. But Jesus said, " Before Abraham 
was, I am." 2 He spoke naturally and familiarly of 
His pre-existence. If we are to believe His most 
explicit statements, we must believe that He came 
forth from the Father to save lost men. Back of His 
earthly life was His life in Heaven. He discoursed as 
one who had grown familiar with the eternal world, 
and was able to reveal its mysteries. He speaks 
again and again to His Father, who dwelleth in the 
1 2 Timothy i. 10. 2 St. John viii. 58. 



3IO THE LIFE BEYOND THE CLOUD. 

unseen world, and receives answers in articulate 
words. " Father, glorify Thy name," He said ; and 
" there came a voice out of Heaven, saying, I have 
both glorified it, and will glorify it again." 2 There 
appeared unto Him, on the mount, Moses and Elijah, 
coming directly out of the spiritual world, and they 
talked with Him of His death at Jerusalem. " I have 
accomplished the work which thou hast given me to 
do," he said, " but now I come to thee." 2 When 
Jesus told His disciples that He was going away, 
Peter said, " Lord, whither goest thou?" Jesus an- 
swered, " Whither I go thou canst not follow me now, 
but thou shalt follow afterwards." 3 It is often a com- 
fort and help to one who is troubled to realize the 
existence of the spiritual world, that, although de- 
parted spirits cannot come back to us, we have had 
in this world this wonderful Being, who has told us, 
with all the impressiveness that His character gives 
to His words, that He had Himself existed in that 
world, and that He was going back into it, and that 
He would draw after Him all His disciples, that they 
might be with Him in the Father's house. 

III. 

The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is 
the crowning proof to us that there is another life. He 
had told His disciples so often that He should be 
raised the third day that the prediction was known 
even to His enemies, and they devised a plan to pre- 

1 St. John xii. 28. 2 St. John xvii. 4 and 13. 

3 St. John xiii. 36. 



THE LIFE BEYOND THE CLOUD. 311 

vent His disciples from coming by night and stealing 
His body. The evidence for His resurrection is as 
decisive as the evidence for any other fact in history. 
If there be anything certain in the teachings of the 
New Testament concerning the wonderful Being who 
lived in Judaea eighteen hundred years ago, and who 
was crucified by Pontius Pilate, this is certain : that 
Pie rose from the grave to a conscious and personal 
life, and that, in due time, He went back into that 
spiritual world from which He had come. In thus 
rising from the dead, and ascending to Heaven, He 
has taught us that there is for us a conscious life 
after death. 

The ascension of our Lord to Heaven has always 
been regarded as the culminating point in His resur- 
rection from the dead. He showed Himself alive unto 
His disciples, being seen of them for six weeks, in 
various places, and under a variety of circumstances, 
in order to furnish to them decisive proofs that He 
had come back from the grave to a real and con- 
scious life among men, but these manifestations would 
have defeated their purpose if they had continued too 
long. He designed to furnish in His own person, a 
proof of the resurrection from the dead, so that we 
should have the assurance of a life to come ; but 
having furnished that proof, it was also necessary for 
Him to pass from the sight of men into the spiritual 
world. Two of the Gospels tell us that He did so. 
St. Mark says that " He was received up into Heaven, 
and sat down at the right hand of God." 1 St. Luke 

1 St. Mark xvi. 19, 



312 THE LIFE BEYOND THE CLOUD. 

says, in his Gospel, " It came to pass, while He blessed 
them, He was parted from them, and was carried up 
into Heaven." * In the Acts, he tells us more particu- 
larly, that it was forty days after His resurrection, 
and that the ascension was witnessed by His apostles 
whom He had chosen, — that as " they were looking 
He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of 
their sight. And while they were looking steadfastly 
into Heaven as He went, behold, two men stood by 
them in white apparel : which also said, Ye men of 
Galilee, why stand ye looking into Heaven? This 
Jesus, which was received up from you into Heaven, 
shall so come in like manner as ye beheld Him going 
into Heaven." 2 The ascension is also referred to in 
several passages in the Gospel of St. John. At one 
time Jesus said to His disciples, " Doth this cause 
you to stumble? What, then, if ye should behold 
the Son of man ascending where He was before? " 3 
He said to Mary Magdalene, " Touch me not ; for I 
am not yet ascended unto the Father." 4 And St. 
Paul also tells us, in the Epistle to the Ephesians, 
that Christ ascended up " far above all the heavens, 
that He might fill all things." 5 In the Epistle to 
Timothy, he says that " He who was manifested in 
the flesh," was "received up into glory." 6 So that the 
evidence for the ascension of our Lord to Heaven is 
contained in every part of the New Testament. He 
spoke of it to His disciples before it took place; 
they testify to the ascension as a fact within their 

1 St. Luke xxiv. 51. 4 St. John xx. 17. 

2 Acts i. 9-1 1. 5 Ephesians iv. 10. 

3 St. John vi. 62. 6 1 Tim. iii. 16. 



THE LIFE BEYOND THE CLOUD. 313 

own knowledge ; it was used by them in their writ- 
ings as one of the facts well known and authenticated ; 
and it is referred to as an accomplished fact, in the 
book of Revelation ; for St. John saw the Son of man 
actually in Heaven. This doctrine of the ascension 
is also stated in the creeds of the early church, and 
it has been accepted as one of the great facts in re- 
gard to the risen Lord by the Christian church in 
every age. 

IV. 

In connection with the ascension, we are reminded 
of the cloud which " received Him out of their sight!' 
The ascension to Heaven changed very much the rela- 
tions of the disciples to their Lord and Master. We 
should expect such a change from the words of 
Christ before He was put to death. 4< Whither I go," 
He said to His disciples, " ye cannot come." 1 In 
bringing immortality to light, it was not His purpose 
to disclose all the mysteries of the world to come. 

The disciples had been very familiar with Him. 
They had been able to go to Him with all their per- 
plexities. They had been instructed by His wisdom, 
and comforted by His gracious words. When He 
was laid in the tomb there was an interruption of 
their communion, but it was only for a few hours. 
He came back to them, and talked with them in the old 
way, at intervals, for six weeks. He was giving them 
His blessing when He was taken up into Heaven. 
But that was His last word. They saw Him begin 
the ascension, and then, as they were looking, the 

1 St. John viii. 21. 



3 14 THE LIFE BEYOND THE CLOUD. 

cloud was interposed. They did not see Him finish 
the ascension. 

One might have thought that, in giving the final 
proof of immortality, He would have made some new 
disclosure of the other world. But He did not make 
it. No message came from Him to assure them of 
His arrival. The cloud concealed Him from their 
sight. His words of blessing, before He was taken 
up, were the last words they would hear from Him 
while they remained in this world. How often, in the 
years of labor and of persecution, the disciples must 
have longed to see, though but for an hour, their 
vanished Lord. But He never came back to them. 
No word from His lips reached their ears. It was, 
indeed, granted to St. John, when he was in " the isle 
that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and the 
testimony of Jesus," to see " a door opened in 
Heaven," ] and to hear the songs of the redeemed. 
But that was only in a vision. It was as if he had 
dreamed of seeing his Lord, rather than as if he had 
actually seen Him after the old manner. 

St. Paul, also, was caught up into Paradise, 
" whether in the body, or out of the body," we do 
not know ; and he " heard unspeakable words, which 
it is not lawful for a man to utter." 2 So that no know- 
ledge has come to us from beyond the cloud in conse- 
quence of his experiences. At some other times, some 
of the Apostles had communications from Heaven, 
but they related to some matters of practical service, 
and gave no information in respect to the secrets of 
the spiritual world. We also enjoy the privilege of 

1 Revelation i. 9, iv. 1. 2 2 Corinthians xii: 1-4. 



THE LIFE BEYOND THE CLOUD. 315 

prayer, and of communion with God, and much of the 
joy of our life depends upon this communion. 

But, after all, the mysterious wall of death cuts us 
off from direct and personal knowledge of the spir- 
itual world. Up to that wall, one has said, we are 
every one of us moving. Through a narrow door 
our friends, one by one, are passing, — and the door 
closes instantly, so that we have not a single word 
after they cross its portals. 1 We catch the last word, 
the last whisper, the last sigh, of the earthly life, 
and then there is silence unbroken through all the 
years that remain. It may be the nearest friend on 
earth that passes through the door, the one who 
shared all our thoughts and all our affections. We 
go on together up to the last moment of conscious 
life, and then the curtain falls. We are on this side, 
and the spirit is on the other side ; and no prayers 
can bring to us even a word from the departed. We 
linger close up to the separating wall, and long with 
unspeakable desire for some message from the van- 
ished spirit, some knowledge of its experiences ; but 
it is in vain. No one comes back through the 
closed door. If we have neglected to speak any 
word of sympathy, or of appreciation, any farewell 
word, it is too late to speak it now. The dull, cold 
ear of death cannot hear, and the spirit has passed 
beyond the cloud. 

There are some who tell us that they cannot believe 
in immortality unless they can have some communica- 
tion from their departed friends. These reject all the 

l Sermons by Phillips Brooks, p. 216. 



316 THE LIFE BEYOND THE CLOUD. 

evidence for another life unless that evidence can be 
confirmed by their senses. But the evidence from 
the teaching of Christ concerning the spiritual world 
appeals to our faith. No man hath seen God at any- 
time, yet we believe in Him. Jesus did not tell us 
that we should have a vision of angels, or that the 
door would be opened, and that our friends would 
come and go through the open door. All His teach- 
ing seems to show that there are two worlds : the 
world in which He was while He dwelt among men, 
and the other world into which He passed when the 
cloud received Him out of the sight of His disciples. 
When we have done with the discipline which He 
appoints for us in this world, He will come for us, 
and will receive us into the place which He has pre- 
pared for us. 

There have been any number of superstitions with 
respect to omens, and dreams, and signs, given by 
some ghostly power. It has taken centuries for men 
to outgrow the superstitions connected with witch- 
craft. That part of our nature which fits us for re- 
ligion may be led very easily to sympathize with such 
notions as these. The step from faith to superstition 
has always been an easy step for men to take. Our 
elder poets have used these notions with singular 
skill and power. But the day has gone by when 
sensible Christians expect their departed friends to 
appear to them, like the ghost in Hamlet. The light 
of true religion is dissipating the crude notions con- 
cerning omens, and dreams, and witches, and ghosts. 
Christians have learned that the best consolations 
come from other sources than these. 



THE LIFE BEYOND THE CLOUD. 317 



V. 

And yet, the Christian doctrine of immortality 
teaches that there are very close connections between 
the other world and this. God rules in both worlds, 
and He governs this world with a benevolent purpose 
to prepare us for Heaven. The law of sympathy is 
the law of the universe, for God is love. " There is 
joy in the presence of the angels of God over one 
sinner that repenteth." 1 It is safe to infer that the 
angels have some communications from this world. 
We read, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, of the " great 
cloud of witnesses " who compass us about. 2 It 
seems to be the object of that passage to draw a 
motive for Christian fidelity from the assurance that 
those in Heaven are watching our progress. These 
texts seem to teach that there is some real connection 
between the two worlds. But it is not safe to infer that 
those in Heaven know everything that goes on among 
men. They are not omniscient. No one of them can 
be in two places at the same time. They cannot know 
all about all their friends, and still enter into all the 
employments of Heaven. There must be some limita- 
tions to the knowledge which our friends in Heaven 
can have of our lives. The separating wall cuts off 
very much that our fancy would incline us to expect. 

Sometimes we are told that the spirits of the de- 
parted are present with us, though unseen, and that 
they accompany us as guardian angels, and are often 
able to protect us from harm, and to hold us back from 

1 St. Luke xv. 10. 2 Hebrews xii. 1. 



3l8 THE LIFE BEYOND THE CLOUD. 

wrong-doing. One should speak with reserve with re- 
spect to such a theory, for we know too little of the 
other life to qualify us to speak confidently. Protestant 
Christians will not be inclined to accept the Romish 
doctrine of the invocation of saints, and angels, or of 
the Virgin Mary. The Lord has not taught us to look 
for protection to any one in Heaven but to Himself. 

We should bear in mind that we are not the only 
objects of interest to our friends in Heaven. When the 
Lord takes them away it is because they have finished 
their work in this world. If the other world is as 
attractive as our Saviour represents it to be, these 
friends must enter at once upon a larger and more 
spiritual existence. They will be attracted at once 
towards the Redeemer Himself, who is the light and 
the glory of that world. 

There are also many dear friends who have gone 
from earth before them, whom they will be especially 
anxious to see. They will enter with them into the 
employments of the world of light and of praise. It 
is not reasonable to expect that they will make it 
their only purpose to watch over the friends they 
have left in this world. They certainly will not for- 
get them ; but it is not certain that they are able to 
do anything for their help and consolation. There is 
not a word in the New Testament which encourages 
us to invoke their aid. Nor should we derive much 
satisfaction from knowing that the spirit of a dear 
friend had left the associations of Heaven, in order to 
follow our poor earthly life, while it was unable to 
help us, or to speak to us a single word. The mere 
presence of a spirit, with which one could hold no 



THE LIFE BEYOND THE CLOUD. 319 

converse, which one could not even see or touch, — 
the simple presence, without sight, or words, or signs 
of recognition, — would it not be an aggravation of 
our sorrow, rather than a relief ? 

God might have revealed a great deal more con- 
cerning the world to come, and it is reasonable to 
believe that His reserve is due to the fact that too 
much knowledge would unfit us for the duties of the 
present. He is training us, in this life, for the spiritual 
world. We are in the school of Christ. He does not 
want us to become dissatisfied with our school, and 
to be longing to escape from our discipline. 

Besides, the friends who have left us have finished 
their discipline. Some of them have passed through 
the furnace of affliction. They have shown the per- 
fect work of patience and faith that is an anchor to 
the soul. They do not need to turn back to the 
school. God has something new for us in each 
change in our experience. It is not His way to tell 
us beforehand the things He has in reserve for us. 
He will not make Heaven so common that its pleas- 
ures will be cheap. " There remaineth a rest for 
the people of God." We should be thankful that 
"Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have 
entered into the heart of man, the things which God 
hath prepared for those that love Him." 2 

1. We may be very sure, therefore, from 
the teachings of our lord, that there is 
ANOTHER LIFE. The doctrine of immortality under- 
lies all His greatest and most serious words. It is 

2 1 Cor. ii. 9. [a. v.] 



320 THE LIFE BEYOND THE CLOUD. 

presupposed in His own pre-existence, and in His 
resurrection and ascension. It is fundamental in the 
Christian Faith. 

2. We shall do well, however, to accept the fact 
that there is a separation between the earthly and the 
heavenly life. We cannot see beyond the cloud. 
Death effects a separation that is real and lasting. 
Our Christian friends have done for us all that it is 
permitted them to do. They have had the " last of 
earth," and have been advanced to a higher stage 
of existence. They have passed, each one alone, 
through the door that opens into the hereafter. 
Faith enables us to leave them confidently to the 
loving care of the Saviour. He will do for them all 
that they need. As surely as this Easter morning 
has dawned upon us, so surely does the light of 
Heaven dawn upon them. 

3. We know less than we desire of their employ- 
ments. We cannot know, certainly, how their minds 
will work. They will look forward as well as back- 
ward. God has some better things for them than 
they knew in the earthly life. Yet it is not the 
teaching of the Bible that they will forget those they 
have loved in this world, any more than we shall for- 
get them. It is probable that they will know some- 
thing of the things that befall us, though we can 
know absolutely nothing of the things that befall 
them. This intelligence may pass from earth to 
Heaven. It does not pass, so far as we know, from 
Heaven to earth. 

4. Is it right for us to pray for those who have gone 
from earth ? Most Protestants would say no. The 



THE LIFE BEYOND THE CLOUD. 32 1 

Romanists have carried the practice of praying for 
the dead to such an extent that it has fallen under 
the condemnation of those who believe, as we do, 
that the limit of probation is passed before one leaves 
this world. And yet, there does not seem to be any 
good reason why we should cease praying for a dear 
friend who has gone to Heaven, when we have been 
praying for that friend every day for almost all our 
lives. Prayer is our highest privilege. We love to 
pray for our dearest kindred. We follow them with 
our prayers, even to the gates of death. Why may 
we not be permitted to commend them still to 
their Father and to our Father, to their God and to 
our God? I do not see that it is forbidden in the 
New Testament. I find traces of such a practice in 
some parts of the history of the church. It is true, 
the Saviour will, for His own love, watch over them, 
vt ithout our prayers. But we pray for the living who 
are the beloved of the Lord. Why must we cease to 
pray for these same loved and unforgotten children 
of God, when they have passed beyond our sight? 

5. Last of all: it is our privilege to look forward 
with confidence to meeting those Christian friends 
whom God has taken from us. The cloud has re- 
ceived them out of our sight, and there must be 
years of silence, and patient waiting. But, by and 
by, we also shall pass beyond the cloud, and, on the 
other side, the mysteries of the spiritual world will be 
revealed. We shall meet the friends of long ago, and 
shall enter with them into the joy of our Lord. 

How strong and tender the motive to live worthy 

21 



322 THE LIFE BEYOND THE CLOUD. 

of them ; to do nothing, in the years that remain, 
that will unfit us for a closer companionship with 
them. In order that we may live worthy of them, 
we need to cultivate the knowledge we have of the 
unseen world, and to set our affection on things 
above. The Christian world of our time needs, as 
never before, the strength and steadiness that come 
from a familiar acquaintance with the truths that re- 
late to immortality. We should accustom ourselves 
to send our thoughts forward to the home we expect 
to reach at the end of life's journey. We should be 
diligent to finish the work which our Lord has given 
us to do. 

And to His name, as is most due, be praise 
and glory in the church, world without 

end, Amen. 



THE PURITAN IN ENGLAND 
AND NEW ENGLAND. 

By EZRA HOYT BYINGTON, D.D., 

iKember of tijc American Societg of ©turd) l^tstorg. 

With an Introduction by Alexander McKenzie, D.D., Minister 
of the First Church in Cambridge, U.S.A. 

One volume, 8vo, cloth. Three Illustrations. Price, $2.00. 



My summer vacation has been much enriched by the admirable volume 
on " The Puritan in England and New England." It treats the large sub- 
ject in a way so just, thoughtful, and accurate, and is written with such 
pleasant and persuasive picturesqueness, that I know nothing comparable 
to it in the same line of study, and the happy impression of it will long 
continue with me. — Rev. R. S. Storrs, D.D., LL.D., Brooklyn, N. Y. 

I have lately finished reading " The Puritan in England and New Eng- 
land," and write to express my thanks for the pleasure it has given me. I 
have especially enjoyed the chapters on William Pynchon, and Robert 
Breck, and The Pilgrim — or Puritan, which ? Altogether and in detail 
the book is a boon to one who, on account of my pursuits and the necessi- 
ties of my life, can only take what is given on such lines, and who for this 
reason loves to find the guidance of one who inspires so much confidence 
as this writer does. — Ex-Governor D. H. Chamberlain, LL.D., 40 and 
42 Wall Street, New York. 

This is a very interesting and permanently valuable volume. Its style 
also is clear and vigorous, and is eminently readable from cover to cover. 
One of the most delightful productions of the year. — The Congrega- 
tionalist, Boston. 

" The Puritan in England and New England" is an exceedingly attrac- 
tive volume upon Puritan thought and Puritan life. The book is always 
concrete. The narrative is full of vitality from beginning to end. — The 
Outlook, New York. 

This book marks, in a certain sense, an epoch in the study of the 
English and the American Puritans. On the whole, we consider it, as it 
stands on our shelf full of works devoted to the subject, the best for one 
who wishes reality rather than either fervid and favorable sentiment or 
hostile prejudice. — Rev. William E. Griffis, D.D., in The Critic, 
New York. 

This book is every way a worthy and helpful one. The style of the 
author is so simple and direct, the statements he makes are so condensed 
and yet so ample, his own enthusiasm in writing is so evident and conta- 
gious, and he has the whole business in which he is engaged so well in 
hand, that when the first pages of the book are read it will be hard not to 
go straight on till the last page is finished. — Rev. F. A. Noble, D.D., 
in The Advance, Chicago. 

The book is an excellent series of pictures in literary tapestry, showing 
the main episodes and streams of tendency in English and New England 
Puritanism. — The New World (quarterly), Boston. 

This is one of those large and important books with which the Congre- 
gational ministers of New England have never ceased to illustrate the 
history of their churches and their country. Dr. Byington's style is 



attractive ; his treatment of the points at issue is candid and intelligent. 
He makes no attempt to conceal or minimize the defects of the generation, 
and carries his readers with him in the conviction that the men of whom he 
was writing were too large, too high-minded, and too far in advance of 
their times to submit to apologetic treatment without spoiling the portrait. 
New York Independent. 

The style of this book is clear, fresh, and vivid. There is not a dull 
line in the book. It is free from exaggeration, without acrimony, without 
sting. Since Dr. Dexter died, no abler treatment of the Puritan period 
has been published. — The Boston Herald. 

One of the most interesting historical books that have been published 
this year, and in its special field the most important since Douglas Camp- 
bell's work of " The Puritan in Holland, England, and America." — New 
York Sun. 

Dr. Byington is interesting in narrative, judicious in statement, and fair 
in seeking to present controversial points. — Christian Register, Boston. 

The book will be treated as an authority, the more so as the author has 
himself consulted a long list of authorities. He has written with marked 
ability, with conscientious care, and eminent faithfulness. Such a book is 
more than valuable ; it is invaluable. — New York Observer. 

Dr. Byington has done a splendid work in this volume, which entitles 
him to the gratitude of every loyal son and daughter of New England. — 
Boston Home Journal. 

This handsome octavo delights the eyes with its large print, short para- 
graphs, and shorter sentences. The chapters on the early ministers and on 
Church life are wonderfully accurate and vivid. — Sunday School Times, 
Philadelphia. 

This is a notable book, and worthy of a wide reading. — The Golden 
Rule, Boston. 

The author has done good service in gathering a large amount of fresh 
and fascinating material, and his book should find its way into the hands 
of every member of our free churches. — The Christian World, London. 

Dr. Byington throws new light upon the social and religious side of the 
history of these New England fathers. He has produced a most interest- 
ing book, written with painstaking accuracy and in a clear and vigorous 
style: — London Chronicle. 

Dr. Byington has produced a really great book; has made a positive 
and valuable contribution to the historical literature of the Puritan in 
England, among the Dutch, and in New England. — Journal of Educa- 
tion, Boston. 

It is not too strong an assertion that Dr. Byington's work will stand as 
the historical masterpiece of New England and its people. — The Budget. 

The first feeling of the reader of this robust volume is that its author 
has brought to his task a peculiar fitness for it, and that in a field already 
well covered by histories not a few he has explored with good success. 
The volume shows the zest of sympathetic inquiry, the ripeness of mature 
thought, and the strength of wide and well-balanced study of other and 
related departments of thought. — The Bibliotheca Sacra (quarterly), 
Oberlin, Ohio. 



For sale by all booksellers. Mailed, postpaid, on receipt of price, 
by the Publishers, 

ROBERTS BROTHERS, Boston. 

S. LOW, MARSTON & CO., LTD., LONDON. 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper pr 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxid 
Treatment Date: April 2006 

PreservationTechnoloi 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERN 
1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 1 60© 
(724)779-2111 



